Nobody is a Secret Agent, Chapter 5, Part 2

Nobody Is A Secret Agent - Chapter 5, Part 2

by Kaity Pittard, Extraordinaire 

At dinner (corn on the cob and chicken nuggets), Jessica was reading her book. She was ready to get back to her list, but Kyle kept asking her questions. 

  
 "Where were you hiding?"

  "If I tell you it will give it away."

  "I think you were cheating - it had to be out of bounds!"

  "Well, either I'm a really good hider or you're a really lousy seeker!"

  "Hey!"

Jessica decided it was best to quickly flee the scene. She darted upstairs, ready to get back to her list of code names. Which one? Three to pick from. Violet, Venus or Laser. She puzzled over it for a while. Then, something caught her eye - the same mysterious man was walking down the street. The same way, sunglasses, hood. She was almost certain he was looking at her through the window. But he disappeared again. Jessica considered calling the police about him but she decided against it. What if it was just some guy walking down the street? Maybe it would be easier to decide if she did something else for a while. She started to read again. She started a story on Odysseus and the cyclops. She kept reading. Then, he told the cyclops that his name was nobody. Jessica thought that was strange, but she found out why. Odysseus had put the sharpened stake in the cyclops' eye. The Cyclops yelled in pain, "Nobody hurt me, Nobody blinded me!" The other cyclops yelled back, "Why are you yelling at us if nobody hurt you?" Odysseus and his men safely returned to the ship. That was a clever idea, thought Jessica. Then, she got an inspiration! Her code name wouldn't be Violet, it wouldn't be Venus or Laser, it would be Nobody! Jessica would love to see peoples' reactions when she said she was agent Nobody. That settled it, Nobody was a secret agent.

Did it turn out like you expected?

Well, that explained the book title

Chapter 6 coming soon!


*****

 A note from the author's mother:

I thought you'd like to see what your intrepid author looks like after a recent new haircut! She had asked me if she could get her hair cut short and my response was, "Fine by me if you can talk your daddy into it!" Well, she did, and here are the beautiful results:

How We Shared the News

In the past, we've simply called our parents, friends, and the rest of the family to tell them whether we were having a boy or a girl. This time I thought it would be fun to do something a little more special. First off, I designed two special Scrabble boards and took pictures of them. Then I used my collection of scrapbooking supplies to design simple cards:

Because we would find out on a Monday, on Thursday I mailed the cards in two separate envelopes to my parents. I labeled the envelopes with numbers, and wrote on my calendar at home which envelope contained which card. Then I mailed them off with strict instructions not to open until I called to let them know which number was the correct one
.

BOY on the left, GIRL on the right - though Mom and Berk didn't know that!

The suspense of waiting nearly drove my mom crazy, but I think she enjoyed the surprise enough to forgive me for not just telling her on the phone!

Jeff's parents live closer to us, so we decided to have them come over to our house. We asked them to come to lunch that day, then stay to watch the kids while we went to the appointment. I wanted to do something fun with the children to announce it, and after finding several options on-line I chose Silly String. I figured they'd have the most fun with that! When I bought it at a party store after the appointment, I also chose a small selection of pink candies for the children to share.

They loved blasting each other with the pink spray!

Kaity helped Selah since she didn't quite have the coordination to do it herself.

Boy, Girl, or Tiger??

I'll share more later ... but yes, we'll have another little lady in our home. We are very excited! (With mild disappointment on the part of poor Joe. He SO wanted a brother.)

Old Wives' Tales

So we find out Monday whether little Pittard #4 is a boy, girl or a tiger! I thought it would be fun to run through some old wives' tales to see if they ring true concerning the gender of our newest little crumb-snatcher. First, some family predictions: Jeff thinks it's a boy. Kaity votes for girl. Joe thinks boy, and Selah calls her unseen sibling a sister. (Please note that I don't put any weight whatsoever on these silly wives' tales!)

Tale #1: Supposedly, if you like softer bread from the middle of the loaf, it's a girl. Firmer, end slices indicate a boy. GIRL.

Tale #2: If you have that beautiful pregnancy glow, it's a boy. A girl takes away her mother's beauty for herself. (ha!) Um ... BOY, I hope.

Tale #3: When a pregnant woman prefers resting on her left side, it's a boy. Right side, girl. (Is that because women are so often right?) GIRL

Tale #4: If Daddy gains weight during the pregnancy, it's a girl. If he stays the same or loses, it's a boy. Definitely BOY.

Tale #5: Hold a necklace over your hand. If it moves in a circle, it's a girl. If it swings back and forth it's a boy. Over my hand, GIRL. When I held it over my belly, which is one I've also heard, I got BOY. Hm ...

Tale #6: Morning sickness: Boy. No morning sickness: Girl. BOY. BOY. BOY. (But then again, I wasn't sick at all with Joe ...)

Tale #7: Craving protein means it's a boy. If so, BOY.  (I'm also craving spinach like crazy. But, considering I'm usually slightly anemic that's not too surprising.)

Tale #8: If you have increased headaches, boy. BOY, oh, BOY, it's a BOY.

Tale #9: If you can only think of specific names for one of the genders, that's the one!  Well, we have our boy name 90% decided upon. The girl name list is shorter than it was, at least. So, BOY.

All in all, it looks like boy for us! We shall see ...

Shut the Front Door!

Several weeks ago, the doorknob on our front door quit working. As with so many things, we added it to the list of "stuff we'll fix when our income tax return comes in". Last week, we made the trek to Lowe's -- on a date night, no less! (Don't judge.) Anyway, we bought much needed new blinds, the doorknob, a drywall patch, HVAC filters, etc. I told Jeff I could handle the door (see what I did there?) and today the weather was actually nice enough and I felt well enough to get it done!

Jeff and I often say that there is no job so difficult that it can't be made more difficult with the help of a toddler. Selah really, really, loves to "help". Last week she was outside with Jeff while he replaced the brakes on the Taurus and it was incredibly precious. She would come in every once in a while holding a tool and announce, "I'm helpin' Daddy!" She has also recently discovered a fascination with screwdrivers, which she calls, adorably, a "scoover-drive".

Today, she kept wanting to get it away from me while I worked on the door. Not unkindly, but in an informative manner, she would sidle up to the outspread hardware and casually say, "I get my scooverdrive back now. It's my turn." After she tried that a couple of times, she gave up and contented herself with standing helpfully between me and the door so she could see the action up close.

After I took all the old hardware out, Selah loved peeping through the holes.Once she realized I was going to put in a new doorknob, she tried unconvincingly to change my mind. Palms out in front of her, as though to block the door, she shook her head and entreated me to "leave it like dis."

All done!

Nobody Is A Secret Agent, Chapter 5, Part 1

Nobody Is A Secret Agent - Chapter 5, Part 1

by Kaity Pittard, Extraordinaire 

Jessica was sitting on the couch watching TV when her watch beeped. So Kyle wouldn't notice, she pretended to go to the bathroom. As soon as she was in it she hit the button. It was Peter.

    "Hello, I just wanted to remind you, you still need to choose a code name."

    "I'll be thinking about it. Bye". She walked back to the living room. She started thinking about a code name. What would work? Flower?Lightning? Butterfly? Bookworm? No, those didn't seem right. 

    "Jessica," said Mom, "could you clear off the table please".

    "Okay Mom." Jessica got up and went to the kitchen. As she started to clear things off, she was thinking. She headed up to her room when she was done. She sat at her desk thinking. A list would help, she thought. she slid a piece of paper down in front of her and started to jot down ideas.

 

Names

laser 

lightning

 tornado

 

Those all sounded weather related. She tried some other ideas:

 

violet

rose

 daisy

 

(She was looking at the garden in the front  yard.) She tried some other topics:

chocolate

butterscotch

mint

After a few minutes, the list looked like this:

Names

laser

lightning

tornado

violet

rose

daisy

chocolate

butterscotch 

mint

venus

owl

cat

bunny

Laser, Violet, Venus. How could she decide? Her mom called her down for dinner before she could think about it. She grabbed her book and headed downstairs.

 

What could her code name be? (post your guesses in the comment section)

Part two coming soon

Bubble Trouble

Driving home last night I was tired, it was late, and I had a headache. The older children were being ... less than cooperative. So, I turned to Kaity first, then Joe, and explained firmly, with clear hand gestures, "This is YOUR bubble. And this is YOUR bubble. Stay silently in your own bubble!" Having made myself perfectly clear, I turned around to enjoy the unusual quiet. After about a minute, Selah piped up in a very annoyed tone, "Kaity, it's not YOUR bubble, it's MY bubble!"

Sigh.

Don't forget to vote in our poll - boy, girl, or tiger - which will it be?