Author: Shane

Quote Monday rebels

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Evelyn: “When I’m in college…”
::leaning close, voice dropping low::
“…I’m going to eat the Oh’s with the *honey* on them.”

See, my theory is that your children are going to rebel anyway, so you might as well deprive them as much as possible so that their idea of rebelling is eating Honey Nut Cheerios. My only hope is that by the time the learn to hate us, it will be too late! They will already have good habits.

Ollie: “I just want to walk around and see what Chicago looks like at night.”
Me: “Oh, that’s not really a safe time to go wandering around the neighborhood.”
Ollie: “Because of…are there werewolves?”

Me: “Alex, who put all this stuff in my guitar?”
Alex, with no hesitation: “Evie did it.”

Quote Monday knows how to deal with flies

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::During birthday party::
Sara: “How many kids are still here? Do you know?”

Sara: “Is there a fly on the ceiling? What should we do?”
Alex: “Get hammer.”

::Alex had a scab on his knee that fell off::
Alex, panicked: “Ouchie knee missing!”

“Me do eet!”

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Just like his brother and sister before him, Alex talks. A LOT.

At first it was an endless series of nouns, but now he’s gotten to a lot more abstract concepts. In particular, when I put him to bed at night I like to recap the day a little bit. It’s amazing how much he remembers! He often mentions things that happened in the last few days that I’ve forgotten about.

And then, of course, the commands. Alex is FULL of commands. Anything from which book to read (“Clifford book”), to what you should feed to him (“pizza”), to where *precisely* you should sit (“in the corner”). And if there’s any question about who should do something, there’s only one answer: “Me do eet.”

If there is something to be done, Alex wants to do it. Before you can even say what it is, he’s clamoring to be included. Running outside to take out the trash? “Me shoes!” Pouring a bowl of cereal? “Me do eet! By me-self!” Sara got a picture of him sobbing the other day because he didn’t get to go on a rollercoaster.

Other than talking, he is definitely getting to be a two year old. He just has that…gleam in his eye. If you tell him not to do something, he’s headed straight for it. This brings us to climbing, because there’s nothing that boy loves more than climbing things, the more precarious, the better.

Finally, one big new development is that Alex is using the potty. He can’t tell you that he needs to go, but if you plunk him down regularly he will usually go (as long as you are willing to sit and read books to him for 20 minutes). Sometimes he even gets to wear big boy underpants (“vroom-vroom underpants” because they have cars on them). Never in my life have I sent and received so many poop emojis.

So all in all, Alex is just becoming a real person. He uses the potty! He can actually hold a conversation! He sleeps through the night! It’s amazing how fast they grow up, isn’t it?

Condo, no more

/ Shane / 1 Comment

As of this morning, we are no longer the owners of our condo!!

To some degree, it is bittersweet to sell your first house. So many memories over the last 10 years, not the least of which was the birth of our children. All three slept in that bedroom! I think of Christmas mornings, family gatherings, birthdays…

As the last few weeks have wound down, every time I had to go over to the condo, it was very emotional. Would this be the last time I was ever there? There is so much muscle memory involved: turning the car from the alley to the parking space, the proper way to turn the key in the lock, which wall the light switch is on. It all felt deeply personal.

On the other hand, these last few months have been fairly stressful: having the first offer fall through, watching the savings account go down and down, waiting not-so-patiently for an offer, waiting for some disaster and to have everything fall apart (which happened with the first offer we got, and made us extremely paranoid after).

At this point I feel nothing but relief that it’s all over!

We’ve been in the new house for long enough that we are “moved in”, and each day puts the condo farther and farther in the rearview mirror. And of course, the new house is just about the most amazing place I could ever imagine living in. Still, there is always some part of me that is sad when a chapter of my life closes.

Onward, to new chapters!

BASFF 2017 Notable Story!

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I am very pleased to announce that my story, “O What Freedom, This Great Steel Cage” has made the list of Notable Stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017!

It’s not EXACTLY the same as being chosen as one of the year’s best, but it does mean the editors thought that my story was one of the best 40 science fiction stories produced in 2016.

In fact, as I am writing this, I am realizing that my story is the only story from Analog that made the list. I…literally cannot even process that. It makes my knees weak.

Holy.

Cow.