CHOMP!

Spud spent the last week getting FOUR premolars in. And in case you are wondering, no, he didn’t do it without a protest. Noodle was the same way. When their teeth came in, you KNEW. Nighttime fevers, diaper rash, vomiting, not to mention the almost everpresent general level of fuss. Of course, i don’t really blame them. I’ve had tooth pain before, albeit of a different sort, and it is rather hard to suffer in silence. He does seem to be out of it for now, though I’m not sure if the bottom premolars have cut through yet.

I must say that I am quite happy to say farewell to January. First the kids were sick, which led to my severe sleep deprivation, which led to 10 days of me being sick, which was immediately followed by the teething episodes. Not to mention David going out of town all day once a week, and working later in the evenings and Saturdays. Yup, I don’t think I’ll miss January at all. Oh, AND I had to give a talk in church yesterday. Here’s hoping that February will be a bit less eventful.

Giant

So Spud is a BIG BOY. This isn’t really a surprise or anything, considering his size at birth (10 lb 10 oz, for the uninformed). But he hasn’t slowed down at all. Plus the fact that he started walking so early, and has so much hair, he just does NOT look like a 12 month old little boy. I sold a couple of baby items at Kid to Kid yesterday, and he was playing with another little boy. I’m guessing this boy was at least 12 months, as he was walking pretty well and seemed fairly equivalent with Spud as far as developmental milestones. But Spud was a good head taller, and must have had at least 15 pounds over the other little boy. I do think the other boy might have been on the small side, but it sure made Spud look ENORMOUS. The only real downside I see to it, besides my arms tiring so quickly, is that people will expect him to “act his age” which they will presume to be much older than he actually is. Noodle wasn’t nearly as large as Spud, and we got that a lot with her. Just because at age 2 she could easily wrench any toy away from a 5 year old...

I’m not sure what it is about the combination of David and me that produces these Amazon children. I guess it could tie in to the fact that we did meet in the Amazon.... (Although, did you know that the “Amazon Woman” comes from Greek Mythology, and that the Amazon in S. America was named such after explorers encountered female warriors? Knowing the sizes of Brazilian natives, the “Amazon Woman” idea seems very out of place, since they tend to be around 5 feet in height.)

But it’s good. The world can always use more tall people.

I didn't think it would be so cold...

So Monday marked the 3 year anniversary of when we started keeping rats as pets. We currently have four, and have had six cross over the “rainbow bridge.” Last winter, a couple of them died and as it was too cold to dig a proper grave anywhere, we packaged up their remains and stuck them in the corner of the freezer. By the time we were able to get around to having a proper ceremony, we had 3 rats and a hamster to bury. Noodle understands, as much as a 3 year old can, that when people or animals die, their bodies stay here and their spirits “go to heaven”. One day we were discussing animals dying and this part about the spirits going to heaven and she asked, “Is heaven the freezer?”

I guess she didn’t quite grasp it as well as I thought.

End of the Season

We finally took down the Christmas tree and other decorations today. I meant to get to it last Sunday, but it didn’t happen. Noodle was kind of upset that we put the Nativity scenes away, as she really liked playing with the kid one. Then she asked if she could help pack it up, so that alleviated the sadness.

Our stray cat Nemo reappeared tonight. We hadn’t seen him all day yesterday, and didn’t see him this morning, either. I was starting to worry, and it seemed particularly ironic because we just bought a case of 48 cans of cat food. His brother Stripers disappeared about 3 weeks ago, and I feel pretty certain that he must have died. I know that I am much more sensitive about the suffering and “emotions” of animals than 99% of the population, so I couldn’t help but worry about Nemo. Heck, I hadn’t even wanted a cat, but then he came along and was just so friendly and likeable. He’s by far the nicest cat I’ve ever known, which is even more remarkable considering he was born to a wildcat MEAN momma.

Other than that, I am feeling a sense of restlessness. It doesn’t look like we’ll be in a position to meet with a lender before mid/end of February, so until then my house-hunting is on hold. It’s probably just as well, as more homes will be listed in early spring, and at present the pickings are pretty slim. I just feel aimless without something to “work” on a bit every day. I had Christmas & Spud’s birthday to get together and look forward to, but now I just have the rest of a looooong winter stretching out ahead of me. We are going to get a second car next month, and that will help a lot. As it is now, the kids and I are stuck at home everyday, and if it’s too cold outside (which it looks like it will be for the next while) we develop some serious cabin fever. It would be a delight to be able to take them to the library or even shopping to burn off some of our energy. One of my NYs resolutions is to develop a routine/schedule of things to do with the kids, but when the options are “Be stuck at home” everyday, that feels a bit pointless. Especially as Spud isn’t exactly at the age where you can engage him in planned activities.

What are little boys made of?

Boys will be boys? Even monkey boys

What makes people gay?

These are a couple of interesting articles that came up on the FMH blog. The first one is particularly relevant to my experience with Noodle and Spud. Noodle will take anything, spoons, condiments at the dinner table, scraps of paper, etc., and call the biggest one “Daddy,” the next biggest “Mommy,” and the smallest “Baby.” She’s done it as long as she could vocalize, and probably prior to that though we weren’t aware of it. Spud, on the other hand, started “driving” things around with his hand the instant he was slightly mobile. He’d drive pieces of paper, CDs, jar lids, whatever, around the room.

Sick

I’m sick. The kids are almost better, but the 4 severely sleep-deprived nights have caught up with me. I feel like I have mild croup, which I thought was reserved just for kids.

Off to try and get some sleep.

Dog Days

We were at David’s folks house today and I was taking advantage of their high-speed internet to peruse the pit bull rescue websites. It kills me to think that I’m STILL not in a house, mostly for the reason that for the past two years I’ve been dreaming of the day when I could adopt my very own rescued pit bull. It started with my love of Great Danes. I was on a Great Dane mailing list, and one of the members had a personal website with pictures of her dogs. I checked it out to drool over her danes, and discovered her other cute dogs. I didn’t know what they were, but I was intrigued. They had short short hair, of medium size, and looked like fun, happy-go-lucky dogs. I soon found out they were pit bulls. I couldn’t believe it, as I thought pit bulls were the Spuds Mckenzie and Target dogs. I soon learned that those are Bull Terriers, which don’t generally fall into the “pit bull” classification. The three breeds commonly referred to as “pit bulls” are Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, and American Pit Bull Terriers, with very fine distinctions between the latter two (and admittedly some overlap as some dogs are registered as both with different registries). I started researching pit bulls like mad (like I do all of my interests) and quickly was able to get past the myths and media hype. Also since that time I’ve met a number of pit bulls, and they have been the friendliest dogs I’ve ever come across. It is all about the handling of these wonderful animals. They have an inclination to be lovers when it comes to people. And though many do have “dog aggression,” that is a completely different thing from human aggression. Think of it like beagles having “rabbit aggression”. Dog aggression was bred into most bloodlines historically, so you have to expect it to manifest itself. That said, many pit bulls do great with other dogs, but it’s always good to be smart.

Anyways, I digress. I was using the high-speed internet to find my newest dream dog. And I found a couple of beautiful pups. If I had a house right now, I’d drive clear across the country to pick one of these pups up. How can you resist??? I certainly can't!

Gotta Dance

So both Noodle & Spud have been the kinds of kids that can’t NOT dance when they hear music playing. I remember in Brazil, we had Noodle in the sling and were walking around the shopping district. Every store was pumping out different tunes through their open doors, and she would just start bobbing and grooving in the sling. Spud is the same way, though now it seems he doesn’t even need music. He just has to get excited enough. Last night when David came home, Spud got up and walked over to him and then just danced and danced while grinning like crazy. Later that night he was in the tub and was splashing and getting more excited, and finally he just busted out his dance moves again. It really is one of the cutest things. He’s also started trying to incorporate hops and one leg up dance moves, which is pretty advanced for a 12 month old little guy.

For Christmas I got the kids some play silks, as I knew they’d be great fun for dress-up and our frequent dance parties. Both of the kids (and me, too) love them. Nothing adds flair to your dance moves like brightly colored silks. We usually just wave them around, but David made a skirt out of them the other night, so the kids were having lots of fun twirling.

Dancing

Out with the old...

I can't say I'm sad to see 2005 gone. For me, the first 4 months of it were full of post-partum blues, combined with the stress of worrying how to pay the bills every month. Life has been much more pleasant since we joined the income-earning side of the population again. I think 2006 will be a good year. I hope to figure out a good routine for myself and the kids, and we'll likely be able to move to a house in the first half of the year. I was feeling kind of bummed that we aren't moving down to southern Utah (ahhh...the warmth) but in the last couple of days I've learned that a friend of mine who lives an hour north of me here is expecting a baby, and yesterday an old roommate of mine called and said they're moving out here from Tennessee! If I were moving down south, I'd miss these fun opportunities. I am sad that I won't be closer to my sister who lives down there, though. I hope that after we're able to get another car, I'll be able to go down and visit every other month or so.

Spud got his birthday pictures taken last week (he turned one on December 24th). He did such a great job, and I was pleasantly surprised. He tends to want to do his own thing, which is often diametrically opposed to what you want him to do. But we managed to get some really cute shots before he decided he'd had enough posing.