They whispered melodies so loudly

[sovay]

I just explained my high school radio telescope to the friend of my niece's who came over after their half-day to run around screaming in the snow of my parents' side yard. She wanted to know what the dish was for. I had to correct my own assumption that all seven-year-olds know the shape of our galaxy, but otherwise it went all right. She seemed interested in the idea of being able to map something that couldn't be seen with the eye. It finally struck me as hilarious that for more than twenty years I have been explaining the distribution of neutral hydrogen throughout the rotating spiral of the Milky Way with the simile of cream in stirred coffee when I never drank the latter in my life.

In other news, I am at my parents' house, tied up in the pleasant work of niece-care. Yesterday after school was spent almost entirely in playing cats, which was a lot like calisthenics with more purring. She has learned about headbutts and delivers them enthusiastically. She hunted a leftover dreidel all through the house, singing to it exactly as Hestia does with our socks. "String is really tricky," I have found myself saying solemnly. "String is really cunning prey." I convinced her to eat enough protein at dinner by ventriloquizing said protein in the act of traversing a plate blithely fearless in the knowledge that no cat was going to come along and NO WE WERE WRONG ABORT ABORT CHAOS HELL NIGHT DEATH AND THE DEVIL ALL IS LOST and the little cat licks her chops and giggles and waits for the next foolhardy bite. This routine worked until we ran out of protein and then it worked on the starch. I know children enjoy repetition, but I'm still entertained. She loved the dragon stickers sent her by minoanmiss and the book of mythological stickers that arrived today from my godchild. She likes it, by which I mean she is insistent that I not stop even when it's her bedtime, when I read to her.

My physical state is just not acceptable, but my niece is a delight.

Comments

[isis]

CATLISTHENICS!

[sovay]

CATLISTHENICS!

YES!

[asakiyume]

excellent!

[asakiyume]

"Like calisthenics with more purring" is SO ACCURATE.

And string really **is** cunning prey. As are hair ties.

Here's hoping your physical state enters acceptable parameters posthaste.

[choco_frosh]

Word.

[sovay]

Word.

*hugs*

[sovay]

"Like calisthenics with more purring" is SO ACCURATE.

She can do a remarkable croissant-curl for having a human spine!

As are hair ties.

Ribbons have already become her lawful prey.

Here's hoping your physical state enters acceptable parameters posthaste.

Thank you. It is going to take work, which I do not appreciate, but I appreciate the support.

[oracne]

Your niece is indeed a delight.

[sovay]

Your niece is indeed a delight.

I like her and I like the kind of person she seems to be turning into. I don't even say it just because of the cats and dragons.

[selkie]

*blink*

*blink*

I'm incredibly scared. Yet charmed. This is how you get "people with two kids."

Shall I just brace you in the corner with a mug of hot beverage, some smoked eels and a shock blanket?

[sovay]

I'm incredibly scared. Yet charmed. This is how you get "people with two kids."

Kids . . . like me? I have no idea why. They didn't when I was a kid.

Shall I just brace you in the corner with a mug of hot beverage, some smoked eels and a shock blanket?

You might want to save the shock blanket for the Skating Event. If we add gaudior and rushthatspeaks' Fox, the boom might be visible from space.

[selkie]

*throws a box of handwarmers in the back of the car, too, in case they're any good at absorbing kinetic energy*

I have been pondering this on some level for a few weeks, clearly, before myself told me I was; and I can only speak as a nominal adult, but I think it's to do with your, I don't know, you're like a lodestone. You're steady and you do what you do and you let them be and you expect no more or less than that from them in return. Kids trust what doesn't dissemble, whether you are prickly or in pain or whatever is shifting situationally; trust very often leads to liking. If you were flashy with performative affection or dismissive when you talked to them, I imagine you'd remain Eccentric Cool Aunt Who Sends Books, but you made your decision so they made theirs.

[sovay]

Kids trust what doesn't dissemble, whether you are prickly or in pain or whatever is shifting situationally; trust very often leads to liking. If you were flashy with performative affection or dismissive when you talked to them, I imagine you'd remain Eccentric Cool Aunt Who Sends Books, but you made your decision so they made theirs.

I am not used to thinking of myself as a lodestone, either, but it is true that performative affection is something in which I have absolutely no interest on either side.

*hugs*

[selkie]

*hugs*

...Just to be clear, you are allowed to demand basic courtesy from Adolescent Sulkfaced Monster of the Year. You don't need to take the coparent freight! But it behooves them to learn no one has to perform nice, but people who love one another coexist.

[gwynnega]

Your niece is a delight, and clearly she finds you delightful!

I hope your physical state improves soonest.

[sovay]

Your niece is a delight, and clearly she finds you delightful!

I believed myself for years to be the sort of person for whom children had no affinity for and this is apparently one hundred percent wrong. I'm pretty happy about it.

I hope your physical state improves soonest.

Thank you.

[selkie]

I believed myself for years to be the sort of person for whom children had no affinity
Help, help, help, my beautiful incomparable adorable eyes rolled to the back of my head. Our sour, serious, fretful child had you on lock at their first birthday. And before that! I think you were down in October that previous year!

[sovay]

Our sour, serious, fretful child had you on lock at their first birthday. And before that! I think you were down in October that previous year!

I was! I met your child for the first time properly in October 2010 when I came to D.C. for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I was reading Bruce Duffy's The World as I Found It (1987) at the time, as opposed to Margery Allingham's Traitor's Purse (1941), which I was reading at the baby shower when technically I made first contact with my godchild in the form of feeling them kicking from inside your spouse, which doesn't quite count. And then I was back three months later for their birthday, which was normal in those days.

I take your point that that was more than ten years ago, but I'm still adjusting.

[selkie]

*hugs* Well, you know, you and time.

You took some of Spouse's postpartum *handwavey* full on in October and you still came back for their birthday. Adjust at your own speed! They're younger than we are.

[sovay]

Well, you know, you and time.

My mother has pointed out that long before any of the three children currently in my life were born, she could watch the small children of family friends or other relatives glom on to me and I have never been awkward with babies. So this is an adjustment problem of long standing! She is not remotely surprised that Charlotte literally bounces in place at the thought of spending time with me. I am doing my best to come up to speed.

[minoanmiss]

*delights in your niece*
*continues beaming healing vibes*

[sovay]

*continues beaming healing vibes*

*hugs*

[nineweaving]

You and your niece are delightful, singly and together. Delighting one another, you delight your friends.

Nine

[sovay]

You and your niece are delightful, singly and together. Delighting one another, you delight your friends.

Thank you. I like having these people in my life.

[sara]

Meanwhile, I'm sure children like you but I want to hear about the telescope.

(Children and animals like me, it's adults that are my problem.)

[sovay]

Meanwhile, I'm sure children like you but I want to hear about the telescope.

See this post and these comments and please ignore the part where the latter devolves into Tiny Wittgenstein. I had actually forgotten until a month or so ago that the project got a certificate of accomplishment from the FAA. I find that a little puzzling now, but maybe it was just the radio that did it.

(Children and animals like me, it's adults that are my problem.)

(That sounds like significant information about the adults.)

[sara]

I'm impressed, it would never have occurred to me to convert a cable dish into a radio telescope.

I had a fairly unpleasant series of staff meetings this afternoon and right now I'm not really liking adults much at all.

[sovay]

I'm impressed, it would never have occurred to me to convert a cable dish into a radio telescope.

To be fair, it's more like I wanted to build a radio telescope and the dish had to come from somewhere. It's two and a half meters in diameter. Our neighbors on that side of the yard stopped talking to us after the telescope went up: planted the property line with densely screening trees, tried to report me to the town for bringing down local values, etc. I was bewildered at the time and in hindsight I find it jaw-droppingly petty. But the telescope is still there and I haven't spoken to the neighbors since, so. Thank you.

I had a fairly unpleasant series of staff meetings this afternoon and right now I'm not really liking adults much at all.

I'm sorry. I hope you have better children and animals to repair to.

[ashlyme]

I misread this as "neural hydrogen" so it's a damn good job I didn't go into astrophysics. Your niece sounds like a joyful human being.

*hugs for physical state*

[sovay]

I misread this as "neural hydrogen" so it's a damn good job I didn't go into astrophysics.

Years from now, when the galaxy is proven to be sentient, you can say you told them so!

Your niece sounds like a joyful human being.

I think she's wonderful.

*hugs*