Keris Stainton's Blog, page 76

Joe tweets

Last week was Harry catch-up, this week it's Joe…

Joe just put the teddy I've had since birth into his high chair and gave it some toast. Am now singing 'Circle of Life' and weeping.

Walked almost 4 miles this morning. Joe exclaimed at tractors, bikes, postmen, vans, trucks, motorbikes, sheep, cows, clouds #toddlerworld

Joe just turned to smile at me with a bouncy ball fully inside his mouth. Nearly gave me a bloody heart attack. Ball in bin, boys in tears.

Me to David: "I don't know if Harry's crying about the ball or cos I said Joe could've died." Harry: "I'm crying about the baaaaalllllllll."

Found the source of the peculiar smell in my office. Aged banana *inside* the old printer. How did that get there? *stares at Joe*

I just said, "I've just sat down!" and Joe said, "Juss… sa…downnnnn." This is how you find out which expressions you overuse.

Joe just requested a book by name for the first time: "Tah mah PEEEEE!" i.e. Time to Pee by Mo Willems (@the_pigeon) Excellent choice.

Joe is now taking everything out of the recycling bin and posting it through the letter box and out into the street. Seems very happy.

Harry and Joe have been playing with a telescope of my dad's. Harry calls it a "stellascope"

Joe just said his first sentence! "Mama…. more… 'amm" (That's "Mama! More ham.")

Joe leaned towards me for a kiss. I leaned towards him. He rapped me on the bridge of my nose with a teaspoon. #mummyabuse

When Joe sings the Something Special theme song, he moves his hands as if he's signing. So cute.

I just said, "It's woeful" and Joe is now singing "woe woe woe your boat…"

Joe just tried to climb out of his high chair. Harry said: "Joe! We're all not very impressed of you!"

Biscuitgate

H: "Daddy was jealous."

Me: "I don't think so. Do you know what jealous means?"

H: "Yes. It means he didn't like it."

Me: "No. Jealous means you want something someone else has got. Like if I gave Joe a biscuit but I didn't give you one, you'd probably be jealous."

H, squeaky voice: "Oh! That maked me sad!"

Me: "Why?"

H: "Because you gived Joe a biscuit and not me!"

Me: "I didn't! It was an example! In fact, yesterday I gave you two biscuits, one for Joe, and you ate both!"

H: "But today you didn't give me a biscuit! Not even a crumb!"

I ♥ Pascal Campion

I absolutely love these illustrations by Pascal Campion. So atmospheric.

Lost in translation

Harry and I were talking about … actually I'm not even sure what we were talking about – I think it was perhaps about how the weather affects crops and food? Anyway, he asked me about the meteorite – or as he calls it "meatyalite" that hit Africa.

"The one that made the dinosaurs extinct?" I asked him. No idea if that hit Africa, but it seemed the best guess. "That was millions of years ago."

"No," he said. "It was this year. The meatyalite hit Africa and lots of people died and you got some money…"

"Ah. Do you mean the earthquake in Japan? That wasn't caused by a meteorite, no. And I'm not sure, but I think they're going to be okay for food…"

"Thing is," Harry said. "In the place where the meatyalite hits, you can only taste meat."

Well, obviously.

Writing Wednesday: Do you become your characters?

For a few weeks now, I've been reading an amazing book by Cordelia Fine called Delusions of Gender (I was pacing myself with one chapter a day. I've finished it now). It's actually about "the real science behind sex differences", but there was one bit that related to writing so I thought I'd share.

In a recent series of experiments, Adam Galinsky at Northwestern University and his colleagues showed participants a photograph of someone: a cheerleader, a professor, an elderly man, or an African American man. In each case, some of the volunteers were asked to pretend to actually be the person in the photograph and to write about a typical day in the person's life from a more dispassionate, third-person (he/she…) point of view…

Asked to rate their own traits after the exercise, those who had imagined themselves as a cheerleader rated themselves as more attractive, gorgeous and sexy, compared with controls. Those who imagined themselves as professors felt smarter, those who walked in the shoes of the elderly felt weaker and more dependent, and those who had temporarily lived life as an African American man rated themselves as more aggressive and athletic. Self-perception absorbed the stereotypical qualities of another social group. 

This is interesting from a writer's point of view, don't you think? Given that we spend quite a chunk of time pretending to be someone else. I know in the past I've felt worried or stressed or upset and then, when I stopped to think about why, realised it wasn't me who was worried/stressed/upset, it was whatever character I'd been writing about that day.

What do you think? Do you notice that you take on your characters' traits when you're writing?

Still drawing like a demon

My scanner's packed up.

So I've photographed my drawings instead.

Here they are (if you're interested).

Harry the interior designer

Remember Harry the writer? Well now he's added interior design to his skills. At the moment, the boys each have their own room, but they're both basically box rooms. The plan is to knock through (they were actually originally one room, so the dividing wall is just plasterboard) and then completely redo the resulting room. I'd saved a few images myself and then asked Harry what else he wanted. And… ta-da:

Harry is particularly keen on the lava lamp and the Habitat Okko bird alarm clock (bottom middle). I love the Pond Street tree rug, personalised family 'house rules', 'I'm as big as' height chart and New York taxi from Habitat (which I'm hoping to find on ebay).

Everything else (from top left to right):

A wall of books

A shared room with beauty and brains

World map

Cath Kidston bunting

Recycled cardboard rocket

Rocket and red flame mirrors

Ikea bedding

Coloured balls coat rack

Pigeon light

Reading… Fiction Express

Have you seen Fiction Express yet?

It's such a good idea – there are four books by four different authors and with a new chapter available to download each Friday. Once you've read the chapter, you've got until Monday to vote on what happens next. Like a choose your own adventure!

I've only read one chapter so far – the first chapter of Diary of a Mall Girl by my friend Luisa Plaja. I loved it, as I love all of Luisa's writing, and I'm really looking forward to reading more.

(By the way, the first chapter is free and you can read subsequent chapters for 59p.)

I ♥ Google Street View

One of my favourite things is to read about a place in a book or magazine and go and look it up on Google Street View. Yes, I know. I don't get out much. But really! It's a great way for discovering places you wouldn't necessarily see.

A couple of days ago the wonderful writer Julie Klam linked to this article on Twitter. Once I'd read it, I looked up 157th and Broadway on Google and had a good wander round. These are the things that make me happy.

Anyway, I thought it would be a good way to share some of the locations featured in Jessie ♥ NYC. The above is The Ansonia*, which I'm always going on about, and here's its first appearance in the book…

Jessie stopped staring up at the beautiful building her mum lived in long enough to notice the boy who got into the cab they'd just got out of. She only got a quick glimpse of him as he flung himself in the back – he must have been in a hurry – but he was definitely cute. And holding a bunch of flowers too! Maybe Emma was right about the hotness of New York boys. 

* It's not called The Ansonia in the book. It's called The Albright. Any ideas where I got that name from?

Puddle Ducks

Remember my Prettifying Pavements and Potholes post? Well when Katie Sokoler noticed the forecast was for a week of rain, she decided to turn the puddles into duck ponds.

Now we are DEFINITELY doing this! *orders 4000 tiny ducks*

Check out Katie's other duck pond photos at Color Me Katie. So cute.