Louisette Interview, Age Three
Crappy Pictures has a set of interview questions for kids that I used last year. Time to go again. . .
I asked these questions gradually, over the course of more than a month – she still tended to find inspiration from around her, and to start getting restless after a few questions.
If I felt an answer was too arbitrary, I asked her again later.
(All of these pictures were taken on her birthday – we went to the zoo.)
What is the meaning of life?
A Christmas tree
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Eat cake.
What is your favourite animal?
A panda! [Certainly true at this point in time – we now own four pandas and a red panda tail – not counting clothing with pandas on.]
What brings you the most happiness?
Love.
What makes you feel loved?
You love me [she was on my lap and gave me a hug].
What are you afraid of?
A big scary bear. [She often tells us she can’t brush her teeth/wash her hands because there’s a bear – but this guy didn’t bother her at all.]
If you had one wish, what would you wish for?
I want that one! [giraffe mobile; I brought it down for her to hold.]
What is the funniest word?
That! [Pointing at a bauble.]
What is hard for you to do?
This [She gives me the giraffe mobile to untangle.]
What is the easiest thing to do?
This! [Buries her head in the armchair and lifts up her legs.]
What is the best thing in the world?
Jemima! [That is, her Playschool Jemima doll.]
What is the worst thing in the world? (What makes you feel sad?)
Robots.
What is the meaning of love?
Um. . . coz like our one.
[So. . . what IS love?]
Look! I see a green tree!
If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with it?
These pajamas! [She was wearing a new set.]
Where do your ideas come from?
Any writer will tell you – everywhere.
In 2015 I plan to write slowly – that is, to drastically alter my usual style (I generally finish a book within a month – whether writing for NaNoWriMo or not).
Now that I’ve finished another draft of “Flight of Fancy” (inspired by my daughter’s first fictional story – I literally took her few sentences and made them into a novel) I’m raring to go.
I’m going to STOP and prepare for at least two months, including research and a detailed outline. But I’ve been waiting for inspiration to strike and haven’t had anything to research yet.
The first “hit” was when I was re-watching this video: http://vimeo.com/111547854
I had the idea of having a blind girl nick-named “Cat” because she loves to bask in sunshine. A while ago I read a sad true story of a mum who badly burned her child with spilled coffee because she’d been awake over 24 hours (hence the coffee) and when you’re that tired accidents happen. Although it was clearly not her fault, she had never forgiven herself. I’m fascinated by stories of redemption, so I thought I’d write about Cat’s mother after she’d accidentally blinded her child. I’m also fascinated by blindness, but I try not to write too many blind characters (I have several) because I write in first person and it’s beyond my skill to describe things really well for sighted readers without using visual detail. (Reflecting on my actual capabilities is a definite plus of slow writing – I can spot fatal flaws before the first word is written, and then change them before it’s too late.) So I looked into recovery from blindness. It’s amazing scientifically (http://discovermagazine.com/galleries/zen-photo/b/blindness) and socially (http://io9.com/the-world-that-only-formerly-blind-people-can-see-476400679).
I wondered at this point if I was writing a book for adults, since I could definitely write as a guilt-ridden Mum (writing for adults is unusual for me. . . apart from anything else, the length is quite different and I’m not sure I have a good sense of either the rhythm or the market) and/or something set entirely in the real world (without any fantasy elements).
Neither seemed like a good idea for me (plus it seemed too dark and sad for my liking), so I decided the blindness and recovery had a magical basis. I knew Cat was grateful for her blindness – partly because it changed who she hung out with, but also because it enriched her life in some other way too. I decided that her recovery would be something she kept a secret, in order to appear more mystically impressive than she was (“Wow! It’s like she’s not even blind at all!”) So Cat became a sorceress – a cheerful, smart, sorceress with a flair for drama that could easily make her very powerful.
I still didn’t feel confident about writing as a blind person, even a fake blind person, so I figured (and still figure) Cat would be friends with my hero. . . whoever she is. (Yes, “she”. I’m a girl, which is one good reason, and the world needs more female heroes, which is another.)
I left my complete lack of a main character on the back burner while I thought about the setting. Having a sorceress immediately feels like a quasi-medieval story. There are WAY too many of those – plus, to do a decent job I’d need to do a scary amount of research (and it would still feel incredibly derivative, because there’s just too much quasi-medieval stuff out there – including “Flight of Fancy” although that world is more “fairyland” than regular medieval). It would confuse me utterly to do another steampunk world. So as I was thinking about where to start I decided it should be something future-y. NOT something all computer-y, because I find that very dull. Some other kind of future – something new and interesting and different.
Last night I read Psalm 95, including this bit:
For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him. (NIV)
I finished reading and lay down to go to sleep, but I felt something in the back of my mind telling me I’d missed some vital hook. I got up and re-read it, and the line about “depths of the earth” inspired the idea of enormous epic underground tunnel systems (with windows in the top so Cat had her sunshine). I liked that, and thought about it some more – what would make humanity move underground? Since dirt is a brilliant insulator, I figured it was heat. Australia is the driest continent – more desert than not – so that made sense.
In my thoughts of the future, I’d forgotten about the obvious – global warming. In itself, global warming is a cliché – but it all depends how its handled (for one thing, it’d be nice if it WASN’T post-apocalyptic. . . just different). I figured tunnelling underground was one way to cope with major temperature change. Another was reclaiming land like in Holland or Hong Kong. Another was to adjust existing dwellings – sealing gaps, designing ventilation shafts – which would be delightfully ad hoc – or build new dwellings designed to stay on the sea floor. Still another was to have floating cities – which could be so beautiful, especially if glass and/or spheres were liberally used (to utilise solar power? To float more easily? As a suspension system to deal with wild waves and weather?) And some people would try hard to stay on land – just moving higher and higher up the nearest mountain (which would get easier to live on as it grew warmer).
I’d read something somewhere about buildings deliberately designed to float, and I know there are islands already getting taken over by the sea – plus I’ve seen Hong Kong’s man-made land extension for myself. I had a huge and fascinating place to start my research – laying in magic where I found it best.
I came up with the idea that medieval-style magic really existed in the Middle Ages, and something triggered its return. Don’t know what yet, especially since when we talk “medieval” we’re really talking about Great Britain – and I want to think on a more global scale.
There will of course be major issues with food and water (water might be easy – our ocean is salty because of minerals getting left in there during normal rain cycles. If we melted Antarctica, it would be diluted and might even become drinkable, or close to it), so I’d need to think hard about that too.
I believe human nature is fundamentally stupid in a lot of ways. Here in Australia one government put into place an unpopular “carbon tax”. It was a brave and necessary thing to do. Then the government switched sides, and the new lot threw it out. Arg!
So it will take a LOT before we change the habits that are causing us to head towards potential global crisis environment-wise (I’m writing on my laptop with the AC on, for example). But I think humans also have amazing ingenuity, and when bad stuff DOES happen, we will most likely come up with new ways to deal with it. A lot of those new ways have already been thought of, on the fringes of engineering and science. I’ll look into it and see what makes the best story. I really liked the film “Waterworld” so I’ll have to keep an eye on myself to make sure I’m not stealing from that.
And then there’s the social side of this new world, which will be huge.
Regular readers will know how appalled I am at Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. Unfortunately human history shows that people are generally awful towards refugees (with many beautiful exceptions – including modern-day Germany). . . and if the world changes drastically, refugees will definitely suffer for it.
The likely place for them is on floating cities – literally drifting without a place to call home, and from which they can be rejected from every corner of the globe (while possibly also being the cutting-edge of scientific stuff, due to travel and personal experience). But it occurred to me that if certain weather events trigger major change (I’ve heard of global warming “tipping points” where gradual change becomes sudden change in a heartbeat), a floating city might suddenly be the only form of sustainable life – in which case the refugees would suddenly be the ones with beggars at their door (and they might or might not let them in).
So that’s likely to be some kind of climax, in a world where there is already major tension from both the environment and between the different groups. And something going on for my myserious heroine, too.
I think Cat’s real name will be “Cassandra” and she’ll be the one who first “sees” the next tipping point coming. But she’ll still be a cheerful, relaxed sort of person.
Feel free to help with my research by directing me to theories about what will happen to the Earth physically (and when), and what kind of food/water/housing solutions people are talking about/inventing so far.
Activity Wall: The biggest toy for the smallest yard
I had the idea of making an Activity Wall months ago after seeing a few seconds of something much simpler on TV. We already had ball pit balls, and the idea of a vertical plaything that could allow for a toddler “project” (such as sorting the balls’ colours by where they were placed on the wall) really appealed to me given the small size of our yard and the way certain toys (ones that take effort and allow decision-making) take up a lot of Miss Three’s time and others (like 90% of soft toys and button-pushing devices) don’t usually “do” much beyond the initial excitement.
Fundamentally, this is all about putting plastic balls in tubes and watching them fall down. Miss Three likes to either “race” the balls or catch them at the other end – which is much more randomised that you’d think, since even a slight breeze can change everything. Mr Six-Months loves to watch the balls fall, chew on them, or practice standing holding onto the lowest pipe. It’s a great party toy because no kid has seen it before, and five of them can race at the same time.
The first step is to have some kind of backing, since you’ll eventually want to drill through something in order to hold the pipes in place. We used a trellis drilled onto steel poles, which were then inserted into the upper and lower rims of the fence. A wooden fence will do fine if you use short screws or have very tolerant neighbours.
These PVC pipes are 90mL – much cheaper and easier to work with than 100mL (because 100mL is used for sewage, so it is a LOT thicker). The sections involving only half a pipe naturally contract, catching the regular-size balls. The small balls work much better, and will also fall through holes cut for them. Some sections have “doors” (short sections of PVC with a vertical cut so they can slide back and forth to block or release a hole), which works well and can be operated by a pre-schooler.
Cutting the lengths, drilling the holes, and filing the rough edges was a lot of work – at least twenty hours with good tools. We attached the pieces with string to test it out, and found that very slight angles worked much better that those pictured above.
We put up the trellis well in advance and covered it with a blanket, then hung up the pipes over a couple of nights, covering up the results and keeping the kids inside during the day. On Christmas Day, we had Miss Three follow a treasure map to find “a very big present”. Her initial reaction was confusion, because she had no idea what it was. She still prefers to play on it with someone rather than alone.
For safety reasons, the purple buckets (which also work as a step to reach the top) have holes drilled in the bottom to prevent possible drowning. The whole structure has been thoroughly sprayed with outside anti-spider spray. All the viewing holes become essential when kids inevitably experiment with putting other objects into the tubes.
Cost: Balls $20 for 100
Trellis: $80 (not including steel supports or screws)
PVC: $50
Buckets: $15 from a cheap shop (washing baskets would work too)
Activity Wall
Here it is (note the lack of cardboard pieces, and the elaborate string “treasure hunt” leading to it).
And then I sprayed the whole thing with bug surface spray until I nearly threw up. Because Australia.
Not Dead
My laptop charger is back after secret adventures lasting TWO WEEKS. Expect several posts in quick succession real soon!
Plans Made While Pregnant
When I was pregnant with Louisette, I wrote down some of the stuff CJ and I were desperately looking forward to doing with our kids. Lately, Louisette is old enough to appreciate most of these, so I’ve added comments – three years after writing that list.
And on to today’s official topic! Here, in no particular order, are some of the plans CJ and I are looking forward to doing with our future children (and yes, there are some significant differences in the costs or age-relevance of these items):
Take the kids to the zoo.
I’m deliriously excited about taking Louisette to the zoo for her third birthday in January. She still talks about going to the aquarium a couple of months ago (partly because we made a poster with the photos in order to consolidate her memories), and the zoo should blow her mind.
Buy a house with a yard (but make the kids share a room – if we can all stand it).
We have a yard now! Also a trampoline and cubby house. When TJ starts mostly sleeping through the night, we’ll move both kids into the bigger bedroom (with a backup mattress elsewhere, for bad days/nights). I’m hoping it’ll happen this year.
Take the kids to Questacon, especially in Winter.
We’re on our second year of having an annual membership. It’s so good to always have a fun place to go that’s reasonably well contained and safe – and inside.
Play with plasticine, and playdough, and make potato stencils.
Turns out I’m still terrified of playdough (grind some into your carpet and you’ll soon see why) so I’ll probably get into that only when the kids are quite a bit older and neater. BUT I built up the courage to make painting a part of our lives, and Louisette and I have painting sessions – inside, even! – quite often. I’ll have to use potatoes someday.
Buy primary-school popularity for the kids by having a pool.
I still like this idea, but it’s extremely unlikely our yard or budget will handle an in-ground pool. Still, younger kids just want water, so I hope it’ll still happen. In the meantime, we have those blue plastic shells for paddling, which is lots of fun – even TJ has endured a go.
Expand the house (or shove CJ out of his study) so the kids get their own rooms around the onset of puberty.
Our house has three bedrooms and a converted garage, so CJ and I will most likely share the garage (as we’re doing at the moment, with difficult) as a study and the kids will have the actual bedrooms. I’m hoping that we’ll feel less cramped when we can give away the last of the baby paraphernalia (porta-cot, stroller, etc)
Have a granny flat so the kids can be “neighbours” for a while between living at home and moving out. Charge rent based on their income, until it reaches market value.
It wouldn’t be easy, but we could re-work our house to accommodate that. Probably by having the master-and-ensuite set up as a self-contained flat (with electrical cooking appliances – I lived in a similar arrangement back in the day) for one of the kids, and the garage set up for CJ and I (we’d enter the house from that direction; it has a door and will someday have windows).
Play with frisbees.
We own a Frisbee – I even know where it is – but I suspect the running and fetching would be too much at the moment.
Fly a kite.
Louisette is just old enough (according to CJ), so this will happen soon.
Take them to Canberra’s best playgrounds (the castle, and the snake playground).
We’ve been to both of those playground in the last month 🙂 Lots of fun!
Go camping with my brother and his family.
He’s just about to have a second child (of hopefully lots) so there’s still a long time to wait until our kids are up to camping. Not to mention me.
Lots of cousin time! (My sister and her family might even be living in Canberra, which would mean all my direct siblings are here in one city!!)
Yes! Louisette and my TJ and my sister’s girls see lots of each other, and it’s wonderful!
Go paddle boating.
We’ll need to wait until the kids’ feet can reach the pedals. . .
Rent a four-person bike.
When TJ can reliably sit up, this can happen.
There are quite a few cool things not on this list – CJ takes Louisette to playgrounds on his bike, and she and I often cook together. And there’s plenty more excitement still to come.
Triumph
A couple of nights ago, I finished a novel. This is hardly. . . er. . . novel, since I’ve now written fourteen altogether (Gee Crikey Willikers, Etc) – and that’s only the ones I’ve finished.
Last year I tried the Mirena contraceptive, hoping it’d help solve some of the health issues left over from pregnancy #1. Instead it made things epically, spectacularly (but temporarily) worse. It took longer to remove than usual, and during those horrid months I had to take sick leave because the Mirena made me so depressed (and sick, but I could almost handle that). Desperate to find a way out of the pit, I started a novel.
The Mirena was removed, and I felt it was better to get on with pregnancy #2 than to sit around being unhealthy and miserable for longer. We conceived more or less instantly (scroll down for pics of the results…) which was great, but meant I had maybe a fortnight before the nausea etc completely took over my life. I did Christmas shopping, took extra shifts at work, visited friends like I was about to go on holidays, and so on. Although I’d hoped to finish the novel, it didn’t happen. Once that fortnight passed, I knew it would likely never be finished. It was 33,000 words long (more than halfway through a young adult first draft), and was by no means the worst novel I’ve ever attempted. So that was a shame.
Fast forward to this year. TJ is here and although he’s super easy in most ways, it’s been a long time since he’s settled during the day except in my arms. So I’m rooted in place for around twelve hours a day (even when CJ comes home, because he can’t hold TJ while doing the dishes), and watching the effect of yet more neglect on Louisette (who’s had a very sick mum for a year now) is heartbreaking.
Since Louisette was born, I’m largely mentally healthy – except when physical problems persist more than a couple of weeks. Which would be fine if my health was average, but it’s only been three and a half months since the last (and, thankfully, final) pregnancy, and it’ll be another nine months before the hormones finish leaving my system – then who knows how long to fully recover after that, but definitely years for weight alone (I was in the healthy weight range when we began trying to conceive the first time). So this time around I have post-partum depression. Awesome. And a MASSIVE debt due to pregnancy illness. Oh, and right now I have bronchitis for the THIRD time since having kids – and it’s no coincidence that each time followed a few weeks of gentle, controlled weight loss. I can’t win. (It’s awfully early to be deliberately losing weight post-partum, but I weigh so much now that it’s a serious issue all by itself.)
It’s really hard to imagine life even a few weeks from now, when things will likely be utterly different on the TJ front. I work hard to remember how quickly babies change, and that the worst is over, and that there is an outside world.
Once again I turned to writing, because I feel awful about my parenting at the moment, and I needed the other side of myself to take me out of the crapness.
Long story short, I wrote a novel. I wrote it in a month, from concept to (first-draft) completion – a large chunk of that WITH a baby on my lap and a toddler on the whine, often causing me to write one-handed, stopping and starting as the baby stirred or the toddler made a new demand. Or I had to stop for another painful bout of coughing.
It always takes courage to write a book, and after the first one the hardest book is the one you write when so, so many other books have been so, so rejected. It takes a special kind of courage as a parent – and, let’s face it, as a mother in particular because that’s how our world tends to work – because you need to actually convince yourself from moment to moment that writing for an hour a day (or however much) is more important than sleep, or playing with the kids, or cleaning, or seeing another doctor, or having an adult conversation.
That’s something I do believe, which is an extraordinary thing. After all these years, I still believe in my writing more than virtually anything else.
I really, really hope I’m not wrong.
TJ’s day
Yesterday we went to Floriade (including a petting zoo!) via the Commonwealth Park Castle Playground.
TJ was blasé about slowly falling sideways:
“I question your parenting style.”
“What the. . . ?”
“WHAT THE. . . ?”
“Did yous guys just see what I saw?”
The mandatory cousin photo combined with the mandatory flower pic.
“Don’t talk to her. She’s such a cow.”
Felicity Banks 