short update on my childrens

This morning Miss Squeaky said, “Ta-ta, et tu ah-ah-ahh”, which MyBetterHalf translated to “Papa, would you like to play the crawling game?” And sure enuff, Miss S slid off the couch, and walked over to me, and started the crawling game.

Mr Grunty is sick, past couple of nights he’s woken up and wants to sit, we’re assuming to help drain the snot. Last night he was propped up on pillows in our bed, so he slept at an incline for few hours.

MyBetterHalf is tired. She keeps saying things like, “Dritte is trying to escape!”

My mommy has been visiting us,  so that if we have emergency trip to deliver Dritte, then she can watch the toddlers. They’ve enjoyed having her here, especially since papa has been working some long hours at work this week. (And I really appreciate her doing dishes and other chores, since I’ve been working long hours. I really appreciate the help.)

Presidents’ Day weekend

Friday night, I left work early to pick up the childrens from the daycare, because MyBetterHalf had to stay late at work to make up some time from her OB visit that morning. Oh yeah, things seem to be doing fine with Dritte, and we’re full term, so any day now, but, just to be on the safe side, we have a C-section scheduled for the morning of March 10th. I think the 10th. Maybe the 12th.

Saturday:We went to a 3 year-old’s B-day party. It was A3’s b-day,  WorkAdam’s youngest son, who has WAY more energy than SpeedyGonzalas.  It was the perfect matching of location and birthday-boy. It was the Bouncy Place. Huge 20 foot tall inflatable mountains with slides. Me, and the childrens just stood and stared like slack-jawed yokels.

A3 was very happy to see my childrens. And gave them both lots of hugs and kisses. I think he likes them because he gets to feel like the cool older brother. (His little sister, A4, is just a wee little infant. She was very cute dressed up, and was being held most of the time by Pablo.)

We climbed a short 15′ slide, it was a lot of work, but the slide down was really exciting. Me & Mr Grunty raced A1 (eldest sister, bass player), but we lost.

Mrs WorkAdam was very kind, it was her son’s b-day, but there she was, making sure that Mr Grunty & Miss Squeaky were having fun, and even went inside a bounce tent with me & the childrens and took pictures, because MyBetterHalf, being preggers, wasn’t allowed to bounce.

At the last bit, me & Mr Grunty decided to climb the biggest bounce mountain. Have I mentioned my sprained ankle, well, I have one. And climbing a giant inflateable with a toddler while hobbled isn’t graceful. Lucky for us, A2 was a very kind boy and helped us up to the top. Mr G really enjoyed the slide back down.

After bouncing, and eating cake, our family went to BBQ with Pablo & Blub. It was tasty.

Sunday: we woke to the sounds of them giggling in their room. It is such a wonderful way to wake up, laughing children, and they were kind enough to let us sleep until 7AM.

Church, the normal nursery person Jeff, has left. He got hitched, and will no longer be in our church, because he’s going to his wife’s church. So, new people in the nursery. The childrens were very nervous, who were these strangers that kept trying to talk to them, or show them toys. It was my turn to stay in the nursery, and my childrens eventually started playing with the toys and acting normal. I saw some play-dough, and thought it would be fun. Well, Miss Squeaky in a flash grabbed a piece and bit off a big hunk. The new nursery supervisor, who pro’lly didn’t want to deal with a poisoned child on her first day, in another flash pulled the play-dough from Miss Squeaky’s mouth. Miss S was absolutely shocked. A. Stranger. Stole. Food. From. HER MOUTH…and Miss S started to scream! Almost hyperventillating because she was taking breaths. It took a few minutes to calm her down.

After Church, MyBetterHalf went to a little class about Presbyterianism. Hmm…I didn’t know that they were influenced by Calvin. I’m not a big fan of pre-destination, and I don’t think I’m a Calvinist. (Even in Calvin & Hobbes, I’m more like Hobbes….cautious, not picking fights on girls, grumpy when woken from a nap.)  Or, as a biologist might say, “in reaction to my environement I have the genetic predisposition to believe in free will.”

I watched Mr G go back and forth between two small boxes with pop-top lids, he would open one box, go to the other, open it, go to the first, close it,… for several minutes.

That afternoon, we went to visit Shingo. Once again, the childrens were wary of a new place, and strangers talking to them. They were a little more at ease, because Shingo is just a few months older. But I hear that Mr G would take a few steps, then freeze and observe for a minute until he had worked his way into Shingo’s bedroom, where he saw cool toys, and pointed at his mommy and grunted instructions for her to get the toy for him.

It was a nice evening, some very tasty pork off the grill, and the children all got along. The biggest fight, Mr G couldn’t get a lid on a box and got very frustrated. Then later, he got his fingers shut in a cabinet door. Then a minute later, his fingers were caught in a lid to a scooter-seat when he sister sat on the seat.

Monday I stayed home with the childrens today. I got to witness Miss Squeaky reading a story, she would point at words and say stuff. So very cute. Later in the day, she found one of her mommy’s books, no pictures, and would flip through the pages, find a page, and then shout out a phrase. Because I can’t understand her, and because of her tone and her poise, I thought there was a samari in our living room.

We went outside and enjoyed the sunshine.

We visited MyBetterHalf at her work. One of her co-workers was behind Miss Squeaky, and said, “Hi Miss S, how are you doing?”  That freaked out poor litttle Miss S, and she started screaming. Mr Grunty just looked at me as if to say, “if she’s not gonna eat it, can I have her jumbalaya?”

For the rest of the visit, Miss S was Mommy’s girl. She didn’t want to be held by me. Only by her mommy.

well…I should go to bed…but Sophie-kitty is on my lap.

“Living Dead in Dallas” book 3 of 2009

Sookie Stackhouse is in trouble again, in the second book of the series by Charlaine Harris.

It was fun quick read.

I have a feeling this a “girl” book, because like, six times that I counted, the protaganist spent valuable time describing the clothes either she or some one else was wearing. Yawn. Which was actually a decent trick, because I was then not ready for…

[there be spoilers ahead]

this morning

I was counting Miss Squeaky’s toes this morning, to make sure she hadn’t lost any during the night. (Weird things happen in their room, I tell you what, like packages of wipes will just appear in Mr Grunty’s bed next to his head.) I asked Mr G if he would help, and he came over, and touched each of his sister’s toes while I counted. Whew, there were five. Then Miss S offered her other foot. And then she offered each of her hands. She had a big smile, knowing that she had the correct number of fingers and toes in the correct places.

Recently, Mr Grunty graduated to a bigger shoe size. So this morning, I put his old shoes on Miss Squeaky. He started to fuss, until I reminded him that he had new shoes. Then he was cool. (The new shoes have THREE velcro straps, so that’s lots of fun!)

Mr G made little treks into the snow in the front yard. He went out a few feet, then back to the house, then back into the yard. Miss S was going to follow him, but she got some of that nasty-cold-white-stuff on her shoe and did not like it one bit.

that was weird

1. I asked for a snow-shovel
2. I got a snow-shovel
3. I asked for snow
4. I got snow

My friends are angry at me causing it to snow….remind me to ask for a lottery ticket next year.

Even though I didn’t need to, I used the shovel a bit on our driveway, and even cleared a path on the side of our car at the park-n-ride.

Let It Snow!!

Yeah, bring it on! I want a blizzard. I want Sno-Storm-09!

You know it sports fans, I got me a snow-shovel for geeks-mas 2009! I also got a knitted pink tie, M&Ms and some guitar picks. Thanxies Blub!

The childrens enjoyed the evening too. They got to have their first chocolate fondue. Miss Squeaky ran away from us, with a chocolate covered chin, by lucky for us, SnarkyKat was there to clean Miss Squeaky’s chin. Mr Grunty did a fall off a chair, and he took a bump to the head from papa’s elbow, and tripped a couple of times, but he still had a good time, too. He especially liked sitting on papa’s lap, and papa spoon feeding him chocolate.

(Don’t worry, they ate their peas for dinner. And had banana & strawberry, too.)

Mr G for awhile was running between his parents giving them hugs. Miss S got brave and gave some hugs to Blub, and SnarkyKat, and maybe some other peoples. She and her brother shook a lot of hands, too, because that’s what hosts of a party do. Me and my childrens played the crawling game in front of everyone a couple of times.

At the party I talked with Zorloc aboot how he almost killed a party of heroes in his DM adventure.

…earlier today. Mr G was hungry. I gave him some cheerios. Miss S took some of HIS cheerios, and he started throwing a fit, and crying. She tried to calm him down, by putting a couple of cheerios in his mouth while he was screaming, and then patting him gently on the head.

…later in the afternoon, they really didn’t want a nap. But we knew they needed one, especially with friends coming over. Many times, we went in, put them back in their beds. Finally, Mr G fell asleep, and it was only Miss S that was up and playing. Then, naturally while I’m cleaning the bathroom, I hear Mr G crying. Miss S was sitting on his bed, and had his pacifier in her hand. That happened twice more. I lost my patience and yelled at her. MyBetterHalf was there that time, and calmed both childrens down, and convinced them to finally take a nap.

balloons

tonight, MyBetterHalf brought some helium balloons home. The childrens thought they were hilarious. Don’t worry, it’s a supervised-only toy.

“How Brains Think”

William H. Calvin, How Brains Think (started in 2008, finished in Jan ‘09)

I liked it, it was a fun read…I can’t answer the question. And, I didn’t even take any notes on it, since, I was trying to finish it last year.

One of the things that sets us humans apart, is our ability to plan. Apes may use tools, but they don’t make tools for a job tomorrow. If one were to point to migration, or squirrels burying nuts, then Prof Calvin responds with, “that’s not thinking, that’s just a reaction to hormones in reaction to less sunlight.”

He believes throwing, led to huge increase in our brains. Because throwing, you have to make a plan, (or imagine a future reality), and carry it out, but once the object leaves your hand, you can not alter its course.

He believes thoughts come about, and compete in our mind sorta the same way that species are created by natural selection. I really can’t explain.

One jibe he had against those studying the tiny bits of the brain (physicists) to explain the mind, he said, “a traffic jam may be caused by a faulty spark plug, but you don’t understand traffic flow by only studying spark plugs.”

Let’s think about “banana”…we think of it visually, tastes, feel, texture, our opinions of it, our experiences of it, …. So “banana” is not stored on one spot in the brain, but all over.

Me, I need to read more. By I am curious, where/how are memories stored/made?

cute

Tonight, after our date-nite of watching “Lost”, we went to check on the childrens. I got to Miss Squeaky’s bed, and she wasn’t there.

“Where’s Miss S?” I whispered.

“Oh my goodness,” said MyBetterHalf.

Miss S had crawled into Mr Grunty’s bed, and they were both fast asleep.

“the Ruins of Gorlan” book 2 of 2009

…book one of John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series.

I liked it. And, nice for me, I finished it in less than a week! It was fun to read, well crafted. Basic fantasy story, of youngster, learning how to be a hero. Very little magic in this world. Sort of like medieval Europe, only, because Flanagan really likes coffee, we get quotes like, “I’ld happily kill someone for a cup of coffee.”

The book is classified as “Juvenile/Young Reader” and that was just fine with me. The story went by quickly, there was no cursing, or gross violence, or ‘adult situations’, things that I think for the most part are just used for titilation, not actually necessary for a story. It was just a bit embarrassing when there was a vocabulary word or two that I didn’t know. Nope, I didn’t write them down to make flash cards.

Helpful hints I learned, if I ever wanna be a ranger…

• when on look out, constantly be moving your eyes, changing the distance of your focus, and watch for evidence of movement – I bet this would be helpful for defensive driving.
• when practicing your aim, never shot at the same target twice in a row, because then you can make slight adjustments based off of the previous shot – I wonder if this would help Shaq w/ his free throws?