This is long, and I have many better things to do tonight than prufe reed.
Because it took me some time to get the video rendered and uploaded (after I gave up on brutally slow Quicktime Pro, this free video conversion tool saved the day), this is being posted a day late, so let me interject a story from today at the pool. While Nefarious was doing her swimming test (since she’s under age, she has to prove that she can swim lengths and tread water before being allowed in the deep end) I got a phone call from a friend, and after a minute the life guard says to me, “You can’t have that phone here. Electronic devices are not allowed around the pool.”
This is the first time I’ve ever heard this rule, so I asked her why, and she replied that “cell phones interfere with things and that can be dangerous.”
“What do they interfere with? I don’t understand,” I ask her.
Again vaguely, she says, “we’ve had a lot of problems in the past with them, so they’re banned.”
“Could you give me an example of a problem that the phones cause?”
And then she says defensively, and I kid you not, with a straight face emphasizing her belief in what she was saying, “If you were to drop your cell phone in the water you could electrocute everyone swimming here.”
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing openly at her and told her that she was lying, and as I walked away she yelled that if I didn’t believe her I could go into the office and they’d show me the rule on paper. I called her bluff and did just that, since the office was a non-inconvenient ten feet away, and all the other lifeguards looked to see which of their coworkers had sent me in. I don’t know if she’s the chubby outcast of the group, but they very invalidated her authority and told me that she was an idiot and just to ignore her, and that I could use my phone all I wanted as long as I wasn’t taking photos of other people’s kids. The reason behind all this ineptitude is a long entry of its own.
Oh and don’t worry about this exchange having jinxed Nefarious’s test — the lifeguard barely even watched her, and at the end, just said to her “Ok, get out of the pool”, and nothing else. I just took Nefarious into the office and told the lifeguards that we were there to get her green deep-end bracelet. That said, we bumped into a friend of hers that is not yet able to pass the test, so they spent most of their time playing in the shallow end (about three feet deep, maybe a tiny bit more in areas).
* * *
I’m going to begin by telling you what I’ve been working on lately.
First of all, as I mentioned before (and I know I still owe you a diagram), Nefarious designed a set of cutlery for each of the four Houses of Hogwarts, and I started by creating the Slytherin salad fork and spoon, with a snake wrapped around the fork, and a skull on the handle of the spoon. They were carved out of 3/4″ oak (making the skull a little “flat”) based on her drawings, and then the back and all the detailing was done by hand using a Dremel. After the pieces were sanded — and yes, I admit that I gave up before really finishing this perfectly and that it’s really primitive — I rubbed them with olive oil (and no other finishing agents of any kind, since these need to be food safe). It was amazing how much the oil brought out the color and darkened the wood, to say nothing of the feel of the wood. Given that this is the first spoon and fork that I’ve ever carved in my life, I’m pleased with the outcome.
[For more detail click: manhole covers fork and spoon]
Next I had the idea to make some hot plates (or whatever the mats that you put under hot pans on the table are called) that looked like scaled down versions of manhole covers, with a special eye to the artistic Japanese manhole covers. I made one “normal” cover, which I finished in an iron oxide and dry brushed with silver, as well as three Japanese inspired ones in various finishes. One was done in the same silver-tinged iron oxide, but with “highlights” painted in some of the design, almost like a stained glass window. Another was completely painted, colorfully, with silver (“liquid mirror” paint) borders, and the last was stained cappuccino rather than painted, with the highlights done with olive oil and a tiny amount of translucent white — essentially natural wood. It was all done very roughly, because these were just feelers to decide whether it was worth pursuing. I’ve seen enough that I’m inclined to go ahead and make some nicer ones (with the new bit, which will quadruple the resolution, which is an incomparable improvement), which I promise will look much better. Because 2D pictures don’t really do 3D work justice, here’s a video of the projects, with me rambling for far too long (with stuffed nose if it’s not obvious) about them. Another idea would be to do album covers.
And yeah, it really needs a de-S’er… Yikes!
Like I said, rambling for far too long, but at least it’s HD. With a stuffed nose to boot. But I do really, really like making things and have so, so many things that I am dying to try out… and every time I see my Arduino, I remember so, so many things that I still want to spend more time on.
Other than that, it’s been a difficult couple of days. I felt surprisingly OK when we did our day-long walk through the CNE (admittedly a mix of morphine and the pleasure of being out at the fair go a long way from keeping your mind off physical pain), but it takes my body an awfully long time to repair itself from the damage that this did, so I’ve been rather incapacitated with the never-ending pain and weakness and regular trips to hide in the bathroom, not for my guts (or onward), but to re-guard my emotions so I can keep most of how difficult this is from my young park and pool companion. Caitlin has offered to take me wheelchair shopping. Anyway, I did have some highlights eating a delicious raspberry cake that Caitlin made, but today is the first day that I’ve started to feel mostly functional again [edit: speaking a bit too soon, judging by my current immobility], but yesterday I still made it to the park and saw something that struck me as odd — what looked like a four or five year old boy, nude, as his diaper had just been removed, eagerly breastfeeding. The woman had a Angelina Jolie-like coven of multi-racial children that seemed to be her family, so I’m not sure what the story there was…
Weird stuff, but who am I to judge. I told someone today about it (another parent that I bumped into at the park, so we talked a little) and they were really cold in their response, so I’m not sure whether they were aggressive pro-breast feeding people and they thought I was criticizing them, or if they were just upset that I’d bring up what they might think is awkward to talk about to a relative stranger.
Nefarious drew me this wonderful picture, and I put it next to my computer.
That it was in part an attempted bribe in no way diminishes its sweetness.
She says “tell everyone I drew that when I was really little!”, because she thinks it’s not her best work, but I love it and it makes me very happy.
School starts again in a few days. It’s going to be weird after a full summer of Nefarious being home with us for the vast majority of that time. I wonder if I’ll have more time to indulge these sorts of projects, or if I’ll just use it to sleep… I’m ashamed to admit that my track record indicates the latter.
* * *
Oh, and thank God for five days of rain and thundershowers on the forecast! I really hope they’re good ones, because it’s been horribly hot here. I blame the out of control ambient temperature for having, with much billowing smoke, melted the flexi-cable (connecting the engine to the bits) on my router. I wasn’t doing anything abnormal that should have caused it to melt like this, so I’m assuming that the high temperatures contributed to pushing this sheath past what it was designed to handle.
23 Comments
That kid would be one tiny 4 or 5 year old. My daughter stopped nursing at 3 years and a few months, and stretched out way further than that. That would also be a bit old to be in diapers. I think you’re likely misjudging age, not that it matters much. The nursing isn’t the weird part- it’s the lack of underpants. Though I do know a few moms who have kids who refuse all clothes.
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Take care, Stefanie
LOL@ “If you were to drop your cell phone in the water you could electrocute everyone swimming here.”
That cracked me up.
the word you are looking for is ‘trivet’. That’s what you call the thing you put under a pot to stop it from burning the table.
Perhaps the real concern about cell phone use at the pool would be the number of parents who will be distracted and not watching their children? That would be MY concern!
I nursed my daughter until she was 3.5 years, but not in public, or naked.
Re: The kid’s age — they were nearly as tall as Nefarious, who is seven… thus my guess of four or five. Diaper would be weird at that age, but if you’re willing to infantalize in one arena, why not another?
Strange… from the photo, the kid looks under 40 inches. He looks like a 2.5 year old baby to me… Look at those little legs and feet!
Regardless, nursing is not infantalizing, and one has nothing to do with the other. In fact, most mothers I know who have practiced extended breastfeeding have also practiced elimination communication (myself included,) which would potty train the baby way earlier than most.
I had an interesting exchange about breast feeding the other day.
I was in my husbands shop with our son waiting for him to finish up a tattoo so we could grab some lunch and our son decided it was time to nurse. I sat in a common area where the artists could see me but not the patrons coming into a shop and I covered up with a light blanket. The owner of the shop sat down to talk with me and I immediately felt the need to interject some sort of defense of my nursing and explained I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable nursing in public without a blanket(or even with one).I live in Austin TX a pretty progressive city by TX standards and many women openly breast feed uncovered. I feel bad covering my little man up but I really don’t want to be offensive to those around me. He mentioned he has always felt weird around breast feeding women because there are either nice breasts you want to look at or terrible ones you don’t but can’t help it. Sounds terrible but I bet a lot of people feel that way. Not to mention people who are offended by lack of modesty. That said my baby is less than 3 months so I assume I will become more comfortable with it because extended nursing is important to me.
I’d also love to have him be able to run around naked once he is mobile I think it’s natural and there is nothing shameful or sexual related to his nudity. You can’t dictate others feelings and I would NEVER allow him to hang out naked in a public park, even under my constant supervision. There are a lot of really messed up people out there who might have different ideas of what a naked little boy means.
It sucks to live your life according to others standards of decency but you can’t discount that they will often have an affect on you and yours so i’m trying to tread lightly and find that middle ground.
I’m TOTALLY on board with child-led weaning (I don’t bat an eye at my friend’s 4 year old needing some “momma milk” every now and again–and my 1.5 year old is showing absolutely no sign of stopping any time soon and still relies on it for a great part of her nutrition), but I can’t help but agree that the whole scene you witnessed is a bit odd. Needing a diaper at that age? No big deal. The nudity at that age by itself? No big deal. The breastfeeding at that age by itself? No big deal. But combined? Yeah, a bit odd. Though with the combination I do wonder if there are some developmental delays or unseen medical issues.
That kid looks giant to me. I am not always the best judge of ages, but he certainly looks too old for diapers, too old to be naked in a park, and too old to be breastfeeding.
Just to be clear, I didn’t think it was bad, I thought it was weird.
Kristy, the diaper also suggests developmental disabilities to me, assuming I judged the age right. Because as someone else mentioned above, it’s been my observation that those who breastfeed late also tend to toilet train early… so the combination of the two moved it further into unusual territory.
Andrea – You’ll get used to nursing without a cover. Layers are your friend! Practice in front of a mirror if you’re worried, but by lifting up one layer and pulling down another I’m able to latch my daughter on without even an inch of skin showing. If she pops off I quickly pull down the top layer and I’m covered while getting her situated, and then I readjust as needed. If people have a problem with being in proximity of a breastfeeding mother it is *their* issue, not the mom’s, not the child’s. This is the normal way to feed your kid, even if it’s hard to remember that with society’s skewed standards. Thankfully I’ve never run into any negativity in the past year and a half, and I hope the same for you!
Age is so hard to guess. Mags is not much smaller when she lays across me in a BF-ing position, she’s just turned 2. I was just marveling yesterday at size differences between kids: one little friends son who came over is Meeps age but as tall as Bob (who is about to be 4). Another friends son is the same age as Meeps and almost a whole head shorter.
I breastfed openly and my kids have been naked in public places like the beach. I am sure if someone was so inclined they probably could have taken a similar picture of me.
The caption on the internet would probably have read “hideously tattooed woman scars public while exposing her child and breast.”
Yes, we do make ourselves easy targets, don’t we :)
Don’t get me wrong, i’m not modest. I’m happy to pull out a boob when in the comfort of my own home if people are around. I’m not sure why i’m so afraid of offending out in public, maybe i’m hyper sensitive because of the “hideously tattooed woman” thing. Sometimes I feel like I have to be better behaved than a “normal” looking mommy to not live up to stereotypes….how dumb of me.
I’m not visibly modified in street clothes, but being short and in my mid-20s I have the feeling I often get mistaken for younger, so I totally get how you feel as needing to come across as “perfect” as possible.
I always figure they can’t possibly think any less of me, Andrea. Ha.
If I wasn’t toilet trained and it was a blazing hot summer day I’d also be ripping off my diaper for some fresh air on my butt. Think about how hot and sweaty it must be in a disposable (or non disposable, really) diaper, ugh.
My son is still in diapers at age 6 (severe autism, think I mentioned that in your comment area before, sorry for repetition but need to clarify for others!), so I tend to assume developmental delays when I see things like that. Caitlin, I’m in agreement; I cringe when I have to put diapers on him in this heat, so my kid does tend to be one of the ones running around in just a Pull-Up or swim diaper, no shorts, when possible. No real point here, just commiserating.
Oh yeah, I did mean to ask: Have you ever thought about selling any of your crafts on here or through Etsy? Some of your designs are seriously cool and well done!
I agrre with the comment above stating that each individual thing – no diaper, BF, etc. seem ok on there own but feel odd when combined together.
My kids self weaned early though, my daughter at 10 months and my son at 8 months. I wish they would have gone longer, it would have been nice to save a bit in grocery cost and have a nip available at moments notice.
Oh, the cell phone electricutingeveryone in the pool?! Priceless!!! That made my day!
great work man!!
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