making me happy

You know the answer. It’s my childrens.

The other night, at bedtime, Mr Grunty wanted “papa sing song”. I asked him what he wanted, “ABC”, and when I asked him if he would sing with papa, he said yes. You have to sing slowly, because he can’t remember the words fast enough, but he gets about half of them, with a big smile on his face. I told him goodnight, and he wanted another song, “driving song”. (“Are yu dwiving, are yu dwiving, on de woad, on de woad…”)

That was one he learned from a toy. I didn’t like that toy at all, the song was so annoying, and then my toddlers started to sing along with the “driving song”, and my heart melted and I appreciated the toy. ( I even put up with the randomly selected other annoying songs they had to go through to get to their song.) Then I turned to Ms Sqeaky, “would you like to sing a song with papa?” She smiled a shy little smile and whispered “star”, and we quietly sang “twinkle twinkle little star”. I was very happy, usually she doesn’t sing when her brother is around. (Gee…I’m tearing up a bit now, thinking of it.)

Last night, we finished the big foam coral reef fish puzzle. Then, as celebration, Mr Grunty stood on the foam puzzle and started running in place, “papa stomp”. So, me, Mr G and Ms Squeaky spent the next few minutes playing follow the leader on the puzzle, “touch nose!…touch ears…jump…touch feet…tickle mommy’s feet…dance”.   Mostly they were giving the instructions, except for the tickle mommy’s feet, that was me. Then, at their mother’s requests, they gave each other, their parents, and their baby brother Mr Cuddles, hugs.

Mr Cuddles is getting better at moving around. He can roll over, turn around. He is crawling. Not a pro, but will get the motion going for three or four “crawl-steps”, and then fall forward on his belly, scoot a bit, and then push his butt into the air to start another crawl. His favorite thing to crawl towards: papa’s pink indoor shoes.

stories

This morning, Mr Grunty said he wanted to feed his baby brother. Yay! So, after I pried Mr Cuddles from Ms Squeaky’s arms, I sat MrG down, gently laid MrC on his lap, a pillow propping up MrC’s head, and handed the bottle to MrG. Many times I had to remind him to hold the bottle higher. After a few minutes Mr G told me he was done.

I was trying to get us out the house, I had Ms Squeaky at the diaper changing station, and she looked at me, sad, and said, “Papa, wanna go read with Grunty”.  How could I refuse that. So I let her go read. I peaked in their room a few minutes later, and MsS and MrG were sitting on a bed, facing each other, Mr Grunty had a book, was flipping through the pages and telling MsSqueaky what was on each page.

Mr Cuddles had a poo diaper, and was fussy whilst I was changing him, pro’lly because I wasn’t letting him just scoot naked all over. MsSqueaky went over to him, kissed him on the head, “its OK baby guy, baby-guy its OK”, then she looked at me and said, “baby guy owie butt”.

Ms Squeaky has a new super fun game. She tosses a kitty toy, and laughs and jumps with joy when Oliver kitty chases it. She had gotten strong enough for a decent toss, and patient enough for the kitty to go get it. She is so happy when he pounces on the toy.

The other morning, both toddlers wanted to be held and wanted papa to read to them. Mr G got to my lap first. Ms S looked sad for a second, and then dramatically threw her head down onto her arms. Mr G tried to remedy the situation, by pointing to my other leg and saying “sit here Squeak, sit here”.

Soon, my wonderful Sportsfans, I will be going into the crazy land of NaNoWriMo. Wish me luck. So far, I have two to travel with me, so it won’t be totally terrifying.

But a few stories before I go.

The other morning, MsSqueaky wanted into the bathroom, it was time to get ready to go, but I let her in. A few minutes later, I returned to see her holding her baby doll, while the baby is sitting on her potty. Yes, it is time to start the potty training for MsS. Then, Ms S took the baby to the changing pad, and got a wipe, because her baby doll had “owie butt”.

Mr Grunty, the other morning, wanted me to draw. “Papa draw ping” (or did he say “pain”?) Mr G politely lasked. This went on for a few minutes, Mr G would get more and more upset, until finally, I realized he was saying “plane”.

The other morning, Mr Cuddles woke up around 4am, had a diaper that needed changing, and after we changed it, with a big smile on his face, Mr C did a little kicking-dance laying on the bed, looked at MyBetterHalf and me, as if to say, “Mommy, Papa…I’m awake, you’re awake…let’s hang out! It’ll be awesome!”

Bedtime rituals these days:

• Mr Grunty has been falling out of his bed. This doesn’t wake his siblings.
• Ms Squeaky has been sleep walking, we think, she’ll wander around, and sometimes go back to her room, sometimes just go to our bed and stand there. (If she’s awake, she knows how to crawl in, or ask for help.) Once, MyBetterHalf saw MsS just standing at a doorway, eyes closed.
• Mr Cuddles, usually nurses a bit before bed, and then will either sleep through the night, or, wake up at either midnight, or 4am. If midnight, I can usually cuddle him back to sleep. If 4am, he’ll want to be nursed back to sleep.

This morning, Mr G & Ms S, had their baby dolls, (Mr G has “pink-baby” and Ms S has “blue-baby”), and they were teaching their baby dolls how to crawl on the floor in front of Mr Cuddles.

At lunch time, Mr G & Ms S were happy to take turns and feed their baby brother prunes & pears whilst they sat on papa’s lap.

 

breakfast time

Mr Cuddles gets a bottle in the morning. Ms Squeaky likes to hold him and his bottle. She’ll get on the sofa, scoot over to a side, so she’ll have a pillow, and I’ll lay Mr Cuddles on her lap. Usually by this time Mr Cuddles is very excited and wants his bottle. She holds it, I sit by, just in case, even though, so far I have not been necessary. She smiles, looses concentration and the bottle isn’t level, I adjust the bottle. Then Mr Cuddles and Ms Squeaky get into their routine. He starts either hitting her face, pulling her hair, or grabbing for her nose. She just squints her eyes, smiles, and turns her head.

Mr Grunty prefers his english muffin without butter. The first few times he threw a fit when I handed it to him with butter on it. I wonder if he likes his toast done on one side?

This morning, Ms Squeaky saw the bunch of bananas, pulled one off, and tried to open it for a minute. Then she gave it to him “papa holp”. I peeled it a bit, and she was happy to eat it like a big person, still with some peel attached. She was very cute. (But don’t leave those stringy-fibers on the side of the banana, she does not like those!)

Making my life more difficult, I tried to define “coco” as “chocolate milk that is hot”. Naturally Ms Squeaky likes chocolate milk, and Mr Grunty likes coco.

Happy 8 months

Happy Eight months of living with us, Mr Squeaky.

I am happy that Mr Grunty has taken an interest in feeding you dinner. And I was surprised the other day, that MsSqueaky could feed you all by herself.

You got your second tooth a few days ago.

To celebrate today, I held you, you were in super-man flying position, and I would lean close to your Mommy’s face, and you found that super funny.

stories of the week

One morning, Mr Cuddles was the first one awake. His siblings were sleepy, and slept in until 8AM. So, Mr Cuddle and I snuggled on the couch, made faces, he had his bottle, we made silly noises. And then, he wanted to look outside. So, as a baby is want to do, without warning he jerked himself around so he could kinda see outside. I adjusted him, and then his face was just barely peaking over the couch to look out the window. Yes. We were very cute.

This morning, Miss Squeaky & Mr Grunty both picked up their phone, “call mommy…hi mommy…you working…bye”.

Also this morning, I was lucky to have all of my childrens sitting next to me on the couch. Yes. We were cute.

The other morning, Mr G woke up, and was fussy. I picked him up to console him, because I understand, mornings can be rough. He reached out his hands, “papa, git it!”  and eventually, I was steered in the right direction, so that Mr G could pick up a little cloth-book for babies, and then gave it to Mr Cuddles. Then Mr G was happy.

“Papa, draw an ‘O‘ “, Mr G spent the evening telling me. The next night, he let me have a bit more variety, I was allowed to draw squares and triangles.

zombie book

Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned…is bad. But you knew that, didn’t you. And I was warned by the person who gave it to me, because I wanted “books on zombies”.

Mr Henry explores what if a soulless, smart-ass, fashionista becomes a zombie, who still has a brain. (“Ghoul” is the book’s term for ‘Zombie with consciousness’). So, I liked the gimmick, because aren’t vamps & were-wolves over played? But seriously, the main character, I didn’t want to know her BEFORE she started consuming human flesh.

The  good:

“You look it up. I’m not big on accuracy. I’m in advertising for Christ’s sake.” (pg 137)

“I’d taken heroin chic to its next logical step: postmortem elegance.” (pg 274)

“The conversation ultimately turned to the rollicking topic of favorite foods, it continued deep into the night.” (pg 213)…   LOL, been there, done that!!

The bad…

A few things that bothered me, allegedly the book happens in Seattle, but I’m not sure if the author has ever been to Seattle, despite what the book jacket claims about his residence.  There was the cliche of Seattle always raining…but it is described as a heavy rain, not the usual mist we in Seattle get for days on end, culminating in a mere millimeters of precipitation. There was lightning, which is rarer than snow in these parts. Or there was reference to “Seattle Community College”, dude, there are three, pick one, or just say “local community college”.

If I can’t trust you on basic geography, how can I trust you when you talk about fashion?

Allegedly the Seattle of the book has about 10% supernormal population…zombies, vampires, demons, yeti, were-animals… And no one notices the missing people who end up as food. The heroine says they prey upon those that no one would miss…the homeless, the run-aways,… Sorry, the math isn’t adding up…if 1% of the population is killed per month, you’re gonna notice. And it seems the heroine feeds more than monthly.

And…every now and then Mr. Henry will toss in a serious topic, like how the heroine was molested by her step father at age 12, or how homeless kids have to turn tricks to survive…in between fashion banter or snarky comments.

The Ugly… the sex…well…I do like how the author brings up the fact that if you are dead, there are new issues to deal with.

progress & potato

Today, I am very happy to say, Ms Squeaky & Mr Grunty helped me harvest some potatoes. They were hiding in corn plot#2. No, I didn’t plant any there this year, just some left behind from last year…and when they could, got a bit of sun between the corn leaves. MsS & MrG seemed to have almost as much fun as me. I was very careful with the pitchfork, and made them stand far away when I was using it. (We must remember, farming is dangerous work.) MsS was more enthusiastic about getting the potato from the dirt, but, MrG made me proud by being brave enough to touch a worm.

Ya like how they are using their Easter Pails?

I am starting to think, potato (and not corn) may be my favorite plant. I forgot about them, and I still got a harvest. I want to configure a way to grow them, like they do in a stack of tires, but without the tires. Maybe wicker baskets….hmmm…

Mr Cuddles is getting very good at sitting and keeping his balance. For many minutes at a time. Yay, Mr C!

I am happy to say, Mr Grunty is taking more interest in his baby brother. The other morning, whilst Mr C was in the exersaucer, Mr G brought him a toy…and then another…saying either “here-go” or ” ‘nother-one”. And then he got mad when MsS tried to take one, leaving MrC with more than a dozen.

Along those lines, the toddlers are revisiting the classics. They are requesting to be read “Brown Bear”, or “Little Bear Who Do You Love”. And then when they see a toy we bring out for Mr Cuddles, they make sure to test it out, to make sure it’s still fun.

MsS is getting much better with the puzzles, not getting frustrated as much, better at the problem solving.

radish and harvest 2009 recap

for reference, the radish seeds from last year…worked.

I just pulled up about a dozen radishes that I planted August 9th.

Dang it. I should have waited until the weekend, so the toddlers could help…but then again, there are tiny scratchy spine/thorn/stickers on the radish stems.

I have one plant of radish, that I let go to seed, that I need to harvest. And then  maybe this year, on the cold wet days of winter, I can pick the seeds from the pods. Or not. We have TV these days, you know.

So this year:

• I am successful at growing radish, from my own seeds!
• Acceptable with strawberry. Though the 24 plants from Brad did not produce, but they grew and sent out runners. The strawberry patch needs some serious weeding & pruning.
• I am OK at potatoes. I think there’s still some in corn plot #2.
• Laughable at corn.
• Sad with green beans.

cute words

I may have said it before…nonetheless …I really heart the way Ms Squeaky and MrGrunty pronounce a few words.

water – “Wha-dee”

ointment – “Ohm-pomp”

This evening, MrCuddles and I had a fantastically hilarious game of “watch-papa’s-face-get-close-to-baby”. Good times.