(no subject)

I'm almost done with my Shamethon fic. I just need to tweak it a bit in order to make the characterization a little clearer and to find a way to shoehorn in some details that my beta readers have indicated are needed but that don't fit the current flow of the story-- Basically, I've got some backstory elements that I know about but that didn't make it into the story because they're supporting structure. Making them visible will require shifting the story elements enough that I don't lose or obscure the bits already there (which all do pretty much what I want them to do).

I'm trying to let what I need to do stew in my head a bit. Delia's not helping because she wants to ricochet off me every three minutes. She's desperate for stimulation-- something to *do*, something to chase after, someone to bounce off the walls with her. In not too long, I'm going to let her drag me outside to spray her with the hose, but I'm putting it off in hopes of (a) letting my hair dry first so that I can put it up (I showered an hour and a half ago) and (b) getting a few minutes of peace to sit and think about nothing much until the story fits itself together.

My usual techniques for thinking about nothing much aren't working at the moment because, when I open either solitaire or My Mahj2D, Delia demands to play, too. She doesn't understand how to play though, so I end up working hard at thinking about how to teach her and about which bits I can trust her with given that my laptop is *my* laptop, that I don't want her playing with any laptop unsupervised (yet), that I have other things I need to do than to supervise her.

( Little bits of news about my daughter )

(no subject)

Oh, dear...

Delia and I did go outside for some playing in the spray from the hose. It's not very hot out, however, so Delia lost interest quickly. I wanted to finish watering everything before coming inside because it's hard for me to get myself back outside again just for pumpkins, rhubarb and mint, so I told Delia that we needed to wait a few minutes before going back inside.

I headed for the backyard and didn't worry too much that she didn't follow. I turned on the water and then went in the gate. Once I was in the backyard, I saw that we have pumpkins growing now, and I called to Delia to come and see. She didn't respond, so I assumed that she'd gone in to get a towel. It took me about two minutes to water everything (there isn't very much at all). After I turned the water off, I went inside to look for Delia.

And didn't find her.

This time, she answered when I called. I could tell that she was outside, so I went to the front door and called again. She answered, and it sounded like it came from around the side of the house. As I stepped out the front door, the back doorbell rang. I walked around the house to see Delia standing there, stark naked, with a towel draped over one arm.

I got her inside and dressed and tried to explain why she's not allowed to go outside naked. The explanation suffered a bit from the fact that she wasn't exactly sure what 'naked' meant. We've had some similar discussions about why she shouldn't take off her clothes when the front door is open (that came up again last night when she wanted to wave goodbye to some friends while still getting ready for bed).

The hard part is that I don't want to scare her or make her feel ashamed of her body, but I also want her to learn what's socially acceptable and safe. The distinction between what's okay in front of Mama and Daddy, what's okay in front of guests and what's okay in front of strangers is very hard to explain.

I'll take her out to see the pumpkins later. They're not going anywhere.