lunabee34

Emma got her braces off today! Whooooooooo!

Retainers are way different now than they were twenty years ago; now they're like those Invis-Align braces rather than a thing that sticks to the roof of your mouth. Emma will have to wear hers all the time until November, and then she gets to just wear it at night. Of course, nothing is quite that easy LOL. I have to contact the dentist so that Emma's teensy, weensy little canine teeth can be padded with faux tooth stuff until they are the size of Real Teeth at which point we'll have to have another retainer made.

We went to Books-a-Million and she got a book by Dan and Phil, her favorite Youtube sensations, and then ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. We also got everything she needs for her Halloween costume (Gerard Way in his yellow mask and red hair for the Danger Days album).

Life is pretty good.

No new NCIS tonight, so I have some time to kill. Love to talk to anyone who's around.

Here's what's been going on with me lately:

1. Josh has been sick pretty much all of January. He catches respiratory illnesses like cotton socks catch burrs. He has the immune system of an Ancient dying of the plague. He finally went to the doc again, and will now be taking Singulair and Flonase every day and he's adding echinacea and vitamin C to his regular vitamin regimen. Any suggestions for other things he could do to improve immune health?

2. I've been trying to up my game with self-care. My skin has been so dry because of the Hashimoto's, and so have my eyes. My eyes had gotten so dry that my vision was frequently blurry. I've been using eye drops, and the fish oil I've been taking has really helped. My nostrils had gotten painfully dry, and I've finally gotten them under control with a cocktail of Clinique Moisture Surge, Gold Bond Eczema Lotion, and a smidge of Nystantin just in case they were actually getting infected. I have to watch out for the tops of my eyelids, too; they get flaky unless I keep them super hydrated.

3. Emma and I are having so much fun watching Supernatural. I love Bobby and Ellen and Jo so much. We watched Born Under a Bad Sign tonight, and I love how early on Bobby is willing to go to bat for them (he knows possessed!Sam killed Wandell but isn't going to tell), and I love how hot that scene is when possessed!Sam is twirling Jo's hair with the knife. *fans face* It didn't occur to me on first watch, but wow at how pissed Meg had to be to screw up her daddy's plans for Sam to get revenge.

Emma's also picked up on some interesting things that didn't occur to me on first watch. So in Crossroads Blues, after Dean kisses the crossroads demon, Emma turns to me and says, "So, did John have to kiss the Yellow Eyed Demon?" And I was all, "OMG, he did! He did!" It's a bit of a retcon that we see the YED later making deals of his own when he tells John in In My Time of Dying that he can't swing saving Dean but he knows somebody who can, but I think that's just the YED keeping what he can and can't do close to the vest.

4. Emma's watching Fairy Tale. She watched all the dubbed on Netflix, and is now watching the subbed on Crunchroll. She's super invested in the Gratsu ship; I tried to find her some fic that would be appropriate for her to read, but everything on the first page was rapery and bizarre crossover. LOL Anybody familiar and have some recs?

What's going on with y'all?

1. Emma has become besotted with Supernatural though she has only seen one or two episodes from way into the series. She is constantly looking at fanart and gifs and is listening to tons of classic rock on her tablet in her bedroom. It is adorable.

Yesterday, I asked Fiona, "Who do you love?" And Fiona said, "Castiel." And I said, "What?" And Emma said, "Oh, yeah. I taught her to say that because he is totally the best." And I said, "How do you know since you've never seen the show at all?" And Emma said, "He just is! But guess what I really ship, Mom? It's Destiel!" And then she laughed and laughed and told me all about her favorite Destiel fan art.

Then today at dinner when I told her the Civil War trailer had come out, she was all, "Who's gonna be on who's side? I mean, it's Bucky and Steve, obviously, but where do the others fall? Tony and Bruce are totally science BFFs, but Tony and Steve are BFF, too, so it'll be really hard watching them on opposite sides."

I explained to her that I didn't see a whole lot of evidence for Tony and Steve being BFF so much as teammates who are often slightly antagonistic with one another to which she countered, "But they are! They are! They're just those kinda friends who go Meh at each other in public but love each other behind the scenes. You know, like me and Callie."

Later during a discussion of how hard it is for Steve to find a girlfriend because no one understands him (her words, not mine), Emma said, "I guess I could ship him with Bucky, but he needs some more characterization and personality than he got in the other movies. We'll see." Then she announced that Tony is probably too old to be anyone's boyfriend.

So, to recap, my baby is using the word ship independently of my direction, and is clearly going to eventually claim the title of One Wanker to Rule Them All.

2. monanotlisa, Mona, Mona, Mona! Minority Report! Mona!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fanfic, it writes itself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Emma just wrote a "Let It Go" watersports parody that contains the lines:

"The pee flows free in my panties, only puddles to be seen
A kingdom of yellow liquid, and it looks like I'm the queen"

and

"Why is it that this substance feels like gold?"

Y'all, this child is going to break the internet when she decides to get into fandom.

Also, NCIS made me cry. It was a three hankie episode.

Emma was home from school today because she woke us up at two last night after having spectacularly projectile vomited all over the hallway and bathroom. We had to rent a carpet cleaner today. I'm pretty sure it was the vaccination she got late yesterday afternoon. I looked up side effects, and they included nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Yay!

Anyway, that truly dreadful TNG episode where Beverly finds out her grandmother and all the women before her in the family had a very special incubus friend came on TV this morning. Emma took one look and said: "A ghost who wants to touch her boobies? Really?"

<3

In excellent news, HBOGO is now on the Playstation and the Roku! Whooooooooooooooo! That situation had been pissing me off for a long time. Now to finish Rome!

Does anyone want (or know someone who might want) Enfamil formula coupons? I'm happy to mail them to you. (Can I get Similac to send me coupons? No. *grouses*) Although our pediatrician did call us this morning to come pick up four boxes full of samples of the formula Fiona uses! Whoooooooooo! :) Princess naturally has to have the expensive stuff.

Does anyone want an action figure/doll (kinda bigger than the average action figure) of Lorne from Angel? I'm pretty sure I opened the box once, but it's in pristine condition. Free to a good home.

Does anyone want a Loki action figure? Emma got two for her birthday, one from each grandmother. She already opened one of them, and I suspect she will not want the redundant one. If she doesn't want it, I'll send it on to a good home. ETA: Emma took one look at this Loki, which is different from the other Loki, and decided that she probably *does* need two Lokis. LOL

PM me your address or comment here if I've already got it.

karmageddon asked me to talk about what books kids should read at what ages. ELementary school must-reads, Middle school must reads. How/what to teach kids about literature.

This is a very timely topic as Josh and I have been pondering recently how to handle this very issue with Emma.

I suppose I should begin with a brief discussion of my own childhood as a reader. Even though I grew up in the pre-Internet era and my choices for reading material were confined to actual, physical books, I had access to a wide variety of books, and my reading was rarely curtailed. My house was full of hundreds of books, and I had access to them all. I had free rein of the school library, and I was allowed to buy whatever I wanted at the bookstore (Oh, Walden Books, you died such a sad death decades ago) without Mom even checking to see what I'd bought. Only once did my parents try to curtail what I read. My mother had a collection of more than 100 romance novels, and we're not talking Harlequins here. These were sexually explicit, epic tomes of historical romantic fiction. Once she realized I was reading these books, she tried to keep me from them (but I'd already pretty much read them all at that point) with limited success.

I would like for Emma to have that same lack of restriction, and I truly don't think there is anything that she *shouldn't* read. There are no books that we have hidden anywhere. They're all out in the open, and she could technically take any of them without telling us and I probably wouldn't know she was reading it unless she told me. I think Josh did put the only copy of Playboy we own (mmmmmmm, Charisma Carpenter) in our bedroom at one point, but it was on the shelf for years before he did that, and I put it back when I realized what he'd done.

I only have two concerns with what Emma reads. The first is that I don't want her to scare herself and inconvenience me by having nightmares/being scared of the dark, to be a blunt and selfish parent. LOL In the past few months, she's expressed a lot of interest in reading Stephen King, and I'm hesitant to let her read something that turns me into a whimpering ninny. I told her she could read The Langoliers and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but she hasn't taken me up on it yet. She wants to read Skeleton Crew instead, of course. LOL

The second is that I don't want her to read something she's not ready for. We like angst and violence and dystopias, Josh and I, and I don't want her get fixated on something that she's not ready to think about yet. As smart and precocious as she is, Emma is still very much a child by her own choice. Even while many of those around her are hurtling headlong as fast as they can into what passes for adulthood to 11 year olds, Emma fiercely clings to childhood. She's not boycrazy; she doesn't want to read about sex or really even see kissing on TV. So far, other than the King, she hasn't asked to read anything I'd feel uncomfortable letting her read, so that hasn't become an issue yet.

As far as teaching kids about literature goes, I think the three most important things that parents can do at home is to read themselves in front of their children, read aloud to their children, and talk to their children about what the children read on their own. The number one predictor of how students will perform in any of my classes is whether they read for pleasure. I almost never have students who don't read on their own time earn A's in my classes. It's a little scary how accurate that one predictor is. I always tell my students that if the only time they read is when they are forced to for school they should think of themselves as athletes who only practice their sport during games. It's astonishing the degree to which reading influences the quality of student writing as well. I see it with Emma. Because she reads so much, she has internalized the fundamentals of narrative structure and grammar.

In terms of must-reads, I probably would mention all the tried and true Caldecott and Newbery winners you guys already know about. Instead I will tell you about a couple of books for teensy kiddos that I really like.

First Book of Sushi by Amy Sanger Wilson is fantastic. The art is great (lots of red, black and white), and I love the text. This author has done a whole line of board books about cuisine from different cultures. I also really like Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. It's a kitty! In lovely black and white.

1. Fiona slept continuously from 9:45 to 4:15 last night. OMFG, yay!

2. I quit breastfeeding/pumping yesterday, so I drank two beers last night and got ridiculously tipsy. It was quite fun. :)

3. I had the following two conversations with Emma:

Me: Your eyelashes might get thinner as you get older. Some of the lashes that fall out might eventually not grow back.
Emma: I thought you had the same eyelashes you were born with forever.
Me: No.
Emma: So *that's* why I keep finding Tweek whiskers on my cheeks.

Tweek is one of our cats.

Emma: I don't like Pete. Sam should be with Jack.
Me: I thought you said Jack was too old to have a girlfriend anymore.
Emma: I changed my mind.
Me: Really?
Emma: No. I just don't like Pete.

Oh my little shipper. Bless her heart.

4. Yuletide. *sigh*

I've participated in Yuletide for five years now, and it's become my absolute favorite fannish activity of the year. I never have an obscure fandom that I'm trying to get fic for. In fact, I only went through the nomination process one time. I always just wait until sign-ups and go through the list then to see what I can write. Yuletide is way more about the writing than the reading for me. I love the opportunity to write in fandoms that I normally wouldn't be inspired to write in.

The one time I did try to nominate fandoms left me pretty disappointed. I had just watched Voyager, and I knew there was no active fandom. I was so excited about the possibility of writing Voyager for Yuletide, but the fandom was rejected because it had too many fics on AO3. I tried to make a case for its inclusion because as I went through the archive, I saw that many of the fics in the archive had either been written for Yuletide or were reposts of fics that had been hosted years ago on other, now defunct, archives. Not a lot of new material was being generated. I never received a response, but that didn't shock me as I know the mods probably got a ton of correspondence from participants.

I see this year that DS9 is now ineligible, and here's the catch-22 of Yuletide for me. The past couple years especially, DS9 got a lot of fic for Yuletide which made me so excited. But now I get to be sad that that very same fic takes DS9 out of the running. :( If the only time fic is really being posted for a fandom is Yuletide, the number of fics on AO3 shouldn't count against it, IMHO.

I saw in the fandom eligibility post that fairy tales and related fandoms are now ineligible and possibly Greek and Roman myths are in question. How can Yuletide be without fairy tales?

I have a lot of sympathy for the mods of the fest. I have tried with varying degrees of success to mod a variety of comms and fests, and those were teensy weensy. I can't imagine trying to wrangle a fest on the scale of Yuletide. That's probably part of the problem; Yuletide is so awesome that it grows every year, and it's grown to the point where its size impacts its manageability. I can commiserate with a mod team that's trying to make the experience easier to run. But a lot of the proposed new rules seem to violate the spirit of the fest.

I will probably still participate because I'm never deeply invested in what I'm requesting. But I know for a lot of people, this ruins the one chance they have every year to hope for a fill in a super obscure fandom that means a lot to them. :(

1. Last night before collapsing on the floor in giggles, Emma gave me a "Mother's Day" card (oh, yes, those are air quotes, my friends) she had made on behalf of Fiona and herself. The front cover reads: "You are my Stargate." The message inside reads: "We came from your loving and caring womb (though your vigina is the Stargate) and into the fresh crisp air of the outside world." *dies laughing* What do you do with that?

2. Looks like SG-1 isn't streaming anywhere anymore, including Hulu Plus. :( Emma is being an obnoxious purist and wants to watch them all in order, but I'm afraid she's just going to have to miss out on disc 4 of season one.

3. Things We Trade for Free by jedibuttercup; SGA/BtVS XOVER; Ronon/Faith
This author writes a lot of really enjoyable Buffy crossovers, and this is no exception. Her Ronon and her Faith are excellently done, and I like that the story's a nice meaty length.

4. Another Way to Get It Done by thrace_; SGA; Keller/Carter; fpreg
Ah, that deliciously rare beast--the female impregnates another female fic. I love how Keller and Carter deal with the pregnancy and the way it changes their relationship.

I got more awesome dragons from kaleecat and lyrstzha. Thanks, y'all!

I also got the most awesome package of books from executrix. I've already snarfed down a fourth of The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton.

Has anybody else watched Kenichi, the Mightiest Disciple? I am loving this anime. It's extremely funny and endearing and weird. Totally recommended.

( Star Trek Voyager, Harry Potter, Avatar, and Inuyasha drawings done by Emma )

OMG, y'all. I almost died of the cuteness. That's my little nerdling. The Snape one slays me. Feel free to icon any of these if you so desire. :)