We were showing the boys how to skip at the zoo last week, and Brian really got into it. I took a little movie to show you just how into it he was:
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We were showing the boys how to skip at the zoo last week, and Brian really got into it. I took a little movie to show you just how into it he was:
Get\
the Flash Player to see this player.
The boys were the illustrious Calvin and Hobbes for Halloween this year (Max’s idea). Max was actually dual costumed, being both Calvin (seen here) and Spaceman Spiff. Lots and lots of pictures are over here. Brian totally dug Halloween and lasted much longer than Max when it came to trick-or-treating. His bucket came back full and then he hung out with us on the step stealing candy from his Aunt Heather and trying to blow out the candles in the jack-o-lanterns. Fun was had by all.
I still hate school. And of course Brian woke up very early all weekend, making me wake up early too. But today, when I had to get up to take care of Max, Brian slept in. Grrr. And I think I sent Max to school in the rain, without a coat. I am a bad, bad mom.\
ABC is full of asshats, who won’t even comment on their program. What kind of leadership is that?\
I still love Supernatural! And Veronica Mars. And am looking forward to Battlestar Gallatica. What do these three shows have in common? Amazing use of music. Listen up! You will feel the love too!\
I am staying away from all of the 9/11 programs this weekend and today. Too much politicizing going on for me to stomach them.\
The Skins play tonight and Clinton Portis might play too!\
Kevin is still really sick. He can’t breathe that well or speak that well. I feel badly for him. And me. It is annoying trying to keep him stocked with juice and soup. And he keeps giving his juice away! How can I make sure there is enough for him, when he does that?\
Someone left us cookies at our doorstep last night. Whee! Brian turned down half of a chocolate chip cookie in favor of crackers. WTH?
Probability that Brian and I are having a bad day on the same day: 100%. I am sure of this, because either my headache and subsequent desire to keep my eyes closed is causing Brian to shriek and run around or his shrieking and running around has caused my headache.
Random stories:\
I got tired and dizzy playing ring-around-the-rosie with Brian, so I transitioned us into a new game: I would dance in one spot while he ran around me. This morphed into us just dancing. At one point, I got really into the music and started getting crazy. I ran my fingers through my shoulder length hair and pulled upword, so my hair was standing on end with my fingers tugging to the beat. A moment later I looked down and saw B pulling on his short hair too, trying to dance the way I was.\
Brian turned down a chocolate chip granola bar for an apple & cinnamon rice cake at snack time. The boy is whack. Maybe he pulled too hard on his hair.\
Max started and finished his first fictional chapter book today, all 235 pages. Hurray! This makes me deliriously happy.
Height- 37 1/4 inches, 97%\
Weight- 36.1 lbs, 100%\
Head circ- 20 1/2 inches, 100%\
Brian is a little shorter than Max was at this age. If we estimate their heights according to the old wives’ tale of doubling their height when they are 2, Max will be 6’4 and Brian will be over 6’2.\
Brian is healthy- yay. He is behind in his speech development, however. Brian was nervous and wouldn’t talk to the doctor at all, answer any of her questions, or follow any of her directions. She said he should be talking more, putting together word combinations, and using personal pronouns. If he isn’t doing this by the end of the summer, we should have him reevaluated for speech therapy. Also I was scolded for him not knowing his animal sounds. Right now my mom is thinking, “those damn animal sounds again!” I still have the animal toy, so I don’t know what Brian’s problem is. Heh.\
No shots this time. And he still isn’t allowed to have peanut products. (Hear that, Babba?)\
Ha, I kind of want to tag this as “development” but I don’t think that is how Kevin uses the development tag.
Brian fell in love with a grandma he met at the playground the other day. He literally followed her around and kept wanting to be picked up by her. They sat on the park bench together and he looked at her adoringly. Then they would go play for awhile. It was the cutest thing ever.\
Kevin made brownies for a work thing and actually took them to work. :(\
Seeing toddlers at church is amusing. The boys wear sandals, pants or shorts, and a collared shirt, while the girls wear fancy dresses with the prettiest little shoes and tights. What’s up with that? It’s like the kids aren’t even at the same place. It starts a trend that continues through adulthood where you’ll see a couple on a date at the movies and the girl is dressed like she’s going somewhere else and the guy looks like he just rolled out of bed.\
Apparently today is the Scooperbowl and I don’t have any good ice cream with which to celebrate.\
I was slightly sheepish while walking to the bus stop this morning in my new capri jammy pants until I saw a woman hoing in her jammies, then I didn’t feel so sheepish anymore. (She was not doing the wrong kind of hoing, she was hoing her yard. At 7:30 in the morning. In her jammies. Yea.)
Brian has completely left babyhood and has entered toddlerville. He’s the big T-W-O now! He has tantrums, gets into all sorts of trouble, and tries to do please-let-me-have-my-way, puppy dog eyes. When it doesn’t work, he laughs sheepishly. So adorable. He watches Blues Clues, loves bubbles and drawing. He loves his blankets, but isn’t really into stuffed animals. At the end of the day, his feet stink-eww, the number one sign that he isn’t a baby anymore. He can say: ball, bubble, apple, moon, car, and sign more. That one sign was a huge wahoo! moment for us. Mostly he just points vigorously. Apparently I have watched too much Prison Break while Brian is around, because he sneaks into the dishwasher for a butter knife and then proceeds to slip it into the window casing. Silly kid. He is a great helper and assists with the dishes, laundry, and putting trash in the trash can. I know he will grow out of this soon, so I am taking advantage of it. I can’t put dishes into the dish washer when he is around though, because he keeps trying to “help” me by putting the dirty dishes away and then he cries in frustration. So I just wait until bedtime and then procrastinate doing them anyway. Heh.\
Max is a kid, no longer a baby or a toddler. A real kid. At six, he is one of the smartest people I know. (Which, I only know like four people, so take that for what it is worth.) He is very creative and lovable and tall and funny. He started soccer this Spring. He has been really enjoying it, but is really bad at it. I read somewhere there is a Fall league; I am going to sign him up for it too. I also want to get him into karate. Maybe take it with him, as a mom/son bonding activity. I don’t want to hit or kick blocks of wood though. Hmm, do you think he’d be embarrassed to take karate with me?\
Kindergarten finishes up in 2 weeks, then I am enrolling Max in summer camp. They have all sorts of cool activities and field trips planned. It sounds like a lot of fun. So only 2 more weeks of Max only having half-days away from me. Soon he’ll be spending as much time away from the home as he does at home, awake. Eep! I still have things to tell him: don’t eat before you swim, always wear sunscreen, and it’s okay to use some phrases ironically like “raise the roof” but when in doubt just don’t. Speaking of talks, I was giving Max a refresher about people not seeing/touching/showing private parts and penises and Max was all, “I know, Mom” with an eye-roll tone-of-voice.\
I am a mom of two real kids now. They interact like real people. I even have to seperate them sometimes! It’s odd and cool, at the same time.\
I am at home, as usual. Now that Brian is officially no longer a baby, I have been looking into doing some volunteer work. The local shelter doesn’t need any help right now. Isn’t that just bizarre and, I suppose, a good thing? The Red Cross is currently at the top of my list, but I am not sure what to do with Brian. I think I may have to put this off for a few more years. I can’t find a daycare place that will let me do a half-day. Their definition of part time is all day Tuesday and Thursday. Eh. I guess I could go that route, and then just pick up Brian early. We’ll see. Money is meant to be spent, right?\
I am also looking into joining a gym, one that has daycare attached. That way, I can sit in the locker room for an hour each morning and have some peace. Ha! I am going to make Kevin come with me. Ideally, I’d like someplace with an indoor track, but they seem to be in short supply.\
My biggest dream right now is to spend 24 hours in bed with Kevin, only getting up to answer the door for takeout and for the bathroom. I have been trying to finagle this for over a year now, since I stopped nursing Brian, but so far no luck. We’ll lie in bed together, watch movies, eat takeout, listen to music, take a nap, talk, and it will be marvelous. Ahhh. Doesn’t that sound nice?\
My BFF was telling me that a lot of her friends are constantly fighting with their husbands. I said “I’m not.” She said, “I know. You don’t have to convince me of that because I know.” Isn’t that a great compliment? I am not sure how or why I got so lucky with Kevin. We have a great marriage and I am so thankful for him. Maybe because we are sometimes laid-back about the same things (how to spend money, the house) and other times only one of us really cares about other things (where to vacation, what kind of car to buy). Whatever, it works. Viva la KevandJen!\
Most of my tv watching happens between 6am-10am when I am awake but don’t want to be and the brain isn’t functioning yet. Thank heavens for Tivo, so I don’t have to watch The Today Show. Tivo is also how I am able to provide you such witty and purposeful tv commentary like I sometimes do. I know you are all appreciative even if you don’t comment. Jerks. Hey, there is a new show starting in a couple of weeks called Wind Fall. I expect it to be bad, but since this is summer hiatus, I will take anything.\
Kevin has started traveling for work again. He didn’t finish his physical therapy before the travels kicked up. I am not sure whether he will start it again or not. He is supposed to be home most of the summer, so maybe that is something he will look into. He has been really busy, happy, and successful with work. So busy in fact, we haven’t had the time to buy the new-to-us car we’ve decided to get. Sad, isn’t it? Yea, I don’t know what else is going on with him. Read his blog to the right <———— to learn more. 🙂
Lesson #1: Don’t ignore the baby.\
The baby monitor in the kitchen isn’t usually on anymore because of some newly acquired static. The static is probably caused by one of our neighbors having recently setup their own baby monitor (the pain of living close to lots of people). So this morning when I woke up before the boys, I snuck downstairs to have breakfast in peace. A few minutes later, Max ambled on down. Over an hour later I realized Brian was still sleeping, and yay and hallelujah! because this means I will eventually get to sleep in when the weekend rolls around. Except, Brian wasn’t so much asleep as I just couldn’t hear him since the baby monitor was off. Oops.\
Lesson #2: Don’t watch un-previewed material with the baby nearby.\
After our morning walk, I settled in to watch an award winning short film, The Plight of Clownana, knowing nothing about it. I was pleasantly amused to learn that Clownana is a half-banana/half-clown, ice cream store mascot who likes to dance. Brian came over when the groovy music started to watch the dancing Clownana. Who can blame the kid? He loves to dance. Just about that time, Clownana’s rival makes his debut: Dildo Man, the mascot for the adult bookstore located across the street. The two mascots proceeded to have a… you guessed it, a dance-off. And of course Dildo Man would use streamers as Props! We’d expect nothing less from him. Oopsy again. At least Brian can’t talk yet, so he can’t tell on me when Kevin gets home! This is seriously one of the funniest shorts ever. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I nearly busted a lung laughing so much. You too can watch Clownana
A couple new photosets. I can upload pictures from the conference center, but can’t from the hotel. So, here they are and there are more to come. I’m way behind on pictures.