Giggles BEFORE

I'm finally going to take poor little Giggles for her first haircut. She has awesome, luxuriant hair for a baby, and I hate to cut it, but the poor baby can barely see for the hair in her eyes. And, in the back, it's already past her shoulders. That side's not a problem except that it kinda makes it more obvious how desperately she needs that haircut, hehe. I'm hoping that she has enough hair to maybe even get a little style of some sort. I took some pictures of her "Before" the haircut, and I'll post a few more "After" we've gone so stay tuned.

I Am Vindicated!

Whenever I'm on the computer at night, QT's constant refrain to me runs along the lines of: "don't stay up too late" or "come to bed" "are you coming upstairs yet?" I've explained to him time and again that I need this "alone time" to unwind and enjoy some peace and quiet after having spent the whole day with the kids and the animals, but he doesn't seem to understand what I mean. I'm not sure how my losing a bit of sleep every now and then in favor of some alone time affects him, but I guess it must because he's incessant about this. And so it goes...EVERY SINGLE TIME.

So, we just returned from a family trip to New Mexico. All things considered, the kids and the dog all behaved remarkably well during our trip. The trip itself was lots of fun. We stayed pretty busy each day and about collapsed into bed each night. Imagine my surprise then when, on the 2nd or 3rd night of our trip, QT stayed up well past our "bedtimes" to surf the 'Net...on his own...in the peace and quiet of night. Two (maybe 3) full days in the company of our wonderful and lively children, and he's finally getting the whole "alone time" vs. "sleep time" thing I've been trying to explain to him all along. No matter that he was doubly exhausted the next day from lack of sleep. It was totally worth it. I say, HA!!! I am vindicated.

My Eyes Adored You

Giggles absolutely LOVES being with her big brother and watching him and perro loco chase each other around the house. When she sees them acting crazy like that, she laughs and laughs and contorts all over the place just to be able to keep them in her sight. I'm sure it won't be long before she's following them around on foot, and then "the boys" will really see what's what, haha.

Bday Pics-just a little late!

We ended up with a very simple celebration for QT's birthday. I made some jello shots, ordered some wings, and invited a few friends over to play games, chat, and help us finish off all the goodies. One of our friends brought a cake, others brought beer and snacks, and everyone brought donations for the Aurora Animal Shelter. While the adults hung out in the kitchen, Pumpkin had a blast "hosting" his own kids' party upstairs replete with their very own party food layout.

Here are some pics of us (Giggles and I dancing to La Sonora Dinamita before our guests arrived; QT holding a tray of birthday cupcakes decorated like billiard balls; and Pumpkin after enjoying a cupcake and then sharing a VERY FUNNY moment with one of his buds).





























Here I am with my peeps (minus one or two, unfortunately):



And, finally, here are QT's cakes:

This is a test of the emergency blogging system!

DO NOT be alarmed. I'm coming at you live from facebook's app Blog It! I've read that this is a good way to update all one's data streams at the same time. Sounds like a great way to save time! Let's see how this works.

Ok, I'm using a format called "Markdown" even though I don't know what it means. Hmm, there still doesn't seem to be a way to post any pictures on Blog it. Supposedly, that feature is coming soon...or hoping to anyway.

Well, it looks like that's all I can do here. Now, I'm gonna go see how this looks in Blogger, plus, I've got a baby screaming at me over here so time's up.

The Zoo

Today was Giggles' first visit to the zoo! It was a bit chillier than I expected, but we had fun nonetheless. By far, the favorite activity of the day was the Lorikeet Adventure at Bird World. For $1, you can purchase a tiny cup of nectar, which you then feed to the lorikeets. We probably bought about 5 of those tiny little cups, but boy, it was worth it to see Pumpkin have such a great time. The birds love the nectar so much that they'll sit on your arm and sometimes even try to make off with the entire cup, haha.

Wouldn't you know it, on such a momentous occasion as Giggles' 1st zoo outing, I left my camera at home. :( I managed to snap a few photos using my cell phone, but uh...it appears that I only took pictures of Pumpkin. Oops!! Sorry, Giggles. Here's my fave:



In other news, I'm planning a small soiree for QT's 40th birthday. It's all very last minute and definitely very laid back. Just a few of our friends coming over to hang out and enjoy jello shots with us. I don't even know what sort of food I'm going to be serving at this party yet. So, I was going to the store to pick up a few things we need for tomorrow, and I stupidly backed up right into QT's truck as I was pulling out of the garage. In my brand new vehicle, no less. I don't know what the heck I was thinking, but it sure wasn't that there was another vehicle parked in our driveway, haha. Oh, it just pisses me off. And, I haven't even tasted a jello shot yet!!!

Wouldn't You Love to Live In One of These?

Funny Army Ad

Ukranian Army, that is.

From woot:
If you're a lonely guy seeking female companionship, put down The Game and pick up a Kalashnikov. According to the Ukrainian military, nothing drives the babes wild like enlisting in the Ukrainian military.

This is a real ad for the Ukranian army, btw. Translation from the Youtube page posted below the video.



girl 1: would u take us for a ride on your BMW?
BMW-driver: even to the end of the world!
(Soldiers arrive in tank.)
soldier: hey, i'd like to drown some vodka, girls!
girl 1: just a second!
girl 2: where do you live?
soldier: right here- daytime at work, and at night in the clubs!
girl 1: which work???
soldier: contract of course!
blonde girl: contract?? marriage contract or what?
girl 3: army contract, stupid!
BMW driver: hey, don't you wanna ride in my car?
girls: forget it, take yourself for a ride!
narrator: it's about time for new heroes! with contract based service in ukrainian armed forces!

Bible Studying

Okay, y'all, don't freak out. I went to my very first Bible study on Tuesday. Prior to that, I checked out a new church on Saturday with a friend. This is one of those "kooky" community churches and not, I repeat NOT, a Catholic church. I'm a naughty Catholic, I know.

QT & I accompanied some friends to their "kooky" community church back home once, but we'd never seen anything like it before so it kinda freaked us out. Fast forward a few years, and this time out, I had a much more relaxing experience. For starters, it turns out that the pastor guy is not just some dude that walked in off the street and started "preaching" just b/c he woke up one day and felt like it. Apparently, according to my friend anyway, the pastor has had extensive training in religious studies, probably via some divinity college or something. (In other words, he's better trained for this job than GW Bush was for his when he became Guvner of our great state. ;) Knowing this did actually help me feel better about the whole thing.

Add to that the fact that everyone we met was uber-friendly and accommodating, AND that the church itself is so family-oriented that they have a bunch of volunteers to keep the little ones entertained while the parents attend the service. Wow! In all the Catholic churches we've ever been, the best we could ever hope for was a clean baby-room where our kid could cry without disturbing the others...no matter that the sermon can't always be heard from within these special sound-proof rooms.

Then, there's the service itself. Though I disagreed with the guy's message, I have to admit it was still thought-provoking...unlike, sorry to say, most Catholic services are these days. Can you say boring? Ugh. This pastor dude talked about how much debt we acquire in our lives and how Jesus wants us to spend wisely and not rely on government handouts. Huh? (Ok, I admit that one did baffle me. Whatever my opinion is of welfare, I seriously doubt that God is worrying about it one way or the other. But whatever.)

This, I suppose, is the fundamental difference between this type of church service and "ours." Their goal is apparently to make religion/faith more palatable to the modern masses. Thus, they take passages from the Bible and attempt to relate them to our modern, everyday lives using modern, everyday lingo and situational examples, IMO, with mixed results. Mixed to me anyway because although I enjoyed the entire experience, I must admit that it felt a bit freakish to me to sit in a church and listen to a discussion about debt and capitalism. That just didn't feel right. I'm more used to praying, listening to discussions on Peter or Matthew or whoever, and chanting the Our Father (incidentally, I hate singing it; I much preferred the old fashioned way of just reciting it).

In fact, what I experienced on Saturday didn't even feel like a real church service at all! It was actually fun! YES, that's right, F-U-N. Believe it or not, I enjoyed myself at a church, and even though the topic of discussion was a bit out there, I wasn't plotting my escape throughout the entire service either, which can only be a plus as far as God is concerned. ;)

I'd like to return, but I dunno. In my experience, Catholics are not best known for their understanding and forgiveness. We are the masters of sin and guilt, after all. I can only imagine what my family will say when they find out what I've been doing. ;)

Dead Computers and Such

I was browsing the 'Net yesterday trying to decide whether it would be worthwhile to buy new innards for my dead laptop or, perhaps, to have it professionally repaired. In the end, I decided that, since it's already dead, I'm just going to open that sucker up and see if I can't bring it back to life myself. I've never even opened up a laptop, but I don't think I can make it any less operational than it is right now.

The only obstacles I see are the obvious: time, kids, animal fur flying around. Back in the day, when I had both the time and the inclination, I could take my computer apart and mess with the pieces in a quasi-clean, static-free environment. Now, I'm far from being any sort of computer whiz. Heck, I'm not even a cheez whiz, but I did enjoy trying to do those kind of things myself rather than paying someone else to do them for me (just talking 'bout computers here ;).

So that's what I'm gonna do. Just as soon as I find myself with a couple of extra hours to kill and a clean, quiet place in which to do it.

Fun with Giggles

Tonight, we just hung out at home, had dinner, and played around a bit. Here are a couple of videos we took of the kids.


The frog toy in the middle is the one that plays music. Notice how she bats at the toys until the music starts again.


Who doesn't love to laugh along with crazy boys?

Pictures & Updates

Here are some recent pics of the kiddos!

As you can see, Pumpkin looks more like his Daddy every day, and Giggles...well...I LIKE to think that she's my own little clone. A little pineapple, as it were. And she does look a little like a leafy crown in this picture, doesn't she?

Unfortunately, Giggles also inherited my tendency to grow hair and nails really fast. I'm constantly having to trim her sharp, little scissorhands, and her hair has grown SOOOOO long that we're thinking it might be time for a cut! (Here she is when her hair was still a bit shorter.)

Otherwise, she's moving right along the infant phases. She rolled over on her own for the first time last night, and she's been showing more and more interest in the food we eat. She's also absolutely fascinated by Sunshine (the dog) and loves to pull his ears (see left) and grab his "fur" (his skin really since he's, y'know, kinda hairless, LOL). For his part, Sunshine seems happy enough to sit with Giggles every chance he gets. He never bites her, but he has gotten more bold with her. The other day, I turned around to find him LICKING her face! Ack! She's been kissed by a dog! GET SOME IODINE!GET SOME HOT WATER!

Pumpkin is also doing great. He seems to be enjoying school more this semester (go ahead, put a dagger through my heart). Today, I left Giggles with a friend and joined Pumpkin for his classroom Valentine's Day party. We had a lot of fun, and he seemed very happy to have some one-on-one time with me (or he could've just been happy b/c of all the candy he got from his friends, hehe). He's still totally into trains and loves visiting the Colorado Railroad Museum with his dad. Here's a picture of him alongside his "favorite" train at the museum. Look closely or you might miss him!

He doesn't know this yet, but on Saturday, I'm taking him to a Skippyjon Jones book event at the library. I've even invited some of his friends to join us. I hope they make it. Those of you who keep up with this blog probably remember that he's been a big Skippy fan for *years.* Here he is at age 2 with his 1st Skippyjon book--so cute!

In related news, nights are much better at home these days. Giggles has been sleeping in her crib and through the night for a while now. Pumpkin has also finally returned to his own room, and he seems to be doing just fine too. Ever since our discussion about pupils, he doesn't even want us to leave his night light on anymore so that he can *see* in the dark. Even Sunshine is doing much better at night! He's been sleeping with Pumpkin, and he had a couple of accidents in the beginning, but he's kept *clean* for a couple of weeks now. It appears that the only one not sleeping through the night now is me! I get up at least once every night to check on the kids. There've been a few nights that I've left my room and gone to sleep in Giggles' room just to be closer to the two of them. I think I just miss being near them. Like they say, be careful what you wish for, it sometimes has a way of biting you in the ass, haha.

Well, as much fun as this post has been to write, it's time for me to "shut it." Here are a few more pics for y'all to enjoy.

Hello, God? It's me, Pine

Yeah, I'm thinking more and more of the big "guy." As a good friend of mine (a "believer") once told me, the fact that I'm constantly trying to convince myself there's nothing out there only serves to prove that I really "believe." I guess I wouldn't have to bother convincing myself if I didn't. This is like Philosophy class! You could go nuts trying to sort it out in your head. Yep, she liked her mind games.

I think she was onto something though. I was raised a Catholic, and my family was very involved in the church when my sibs and I were kids. We knew our priest well, and he knew us. We knew other church families, went to church functions, attended CCD classes, played at the church rec center, even baptized our dogs (that was a special thing they did for kids to enjoy, lol). I remember going to church as a fun thing...something to look forward to. I honestly don't know what happened.

Somewhere along the way, I either lost interest or lost faith (if I ever really had it in the first place). My first year at college, I sought out and joined a group called the Atheist and Agnostic Society. You laugh, but that's what they called themselves.) That was right about the time the movie The Last Temptation of Christ came out, and we were so excited to thumb our noses at organized religion that we organized a group to go see the movie the day it opened and even crossed protest lines to get there.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the Church is no longer able to laugh at itself. Father Morgan (that was our childhood priest) was the best. He wasn't afraid to make us laugh during his sermons, and he'd often include a prayer for his favorite football team at the end of mass. He really made mass/church enjoyable. None of the priests I've met or listened to since then have measured up. Now, sure, one's faith should not depend on one's priest, but hell, the priest is such an important figure in the Catholic Church that he should have some influence, don't you think?

I'd like to believe. I mean "really" believe. My own problem has always been that I'm unable to turn my brain off and blindly follow what they want me to believe. I just can't do that, and there are SO MANY things I don't agree with. Gays, abortion...hell, birth control! Birth Control!! Seriously, Catholic Church? In this day and age? That's just plain ridiculous. Hmm...perhaps I'd better brush up and make sure they're still against birth control before I rant any further. Might be they actually changed their stance....but not likely.

I want my kids to believe in something, and I've taken the first steps towards raising them Catholic. But, I also want them to think for themselves and be compassionate towards their fellow humans regardless of who, how, or why they are they way they are. I could rant all day about the church, but we're going to be late for our lunch date. And, just like that, I turn all "this" off. Click.

I Love Chicken (Biscuits)

Big news! Giggles had her first *solid* food! And no, your eyes are not deceiving you.

Yesterday, Giggles and I went to visit some friends at their home, and we took some breakfast Chick-n-Minis with us. I was holding Giggles in my lap while attempting to eat said Chick-n-Mini, and I noticed that she kept reaching for my biscuit. Just 2 days prior, I was drinking a soda while holding her, and she kept reaching for my glass so, this time, I thought..."hmmm, maybe she really is interested." I held the biscuit in front of her, and she licked it! I guess she liked the taste because she gave it a few more licks then grabbed it with her little hand. It was so cute!

I took a teeny tiny little chunk of my biscuit and placed it on her tongue, and she swallowed it--just like that! No gagging or anything! I gave her another couple of microscopic pieces (seriously, they could've been measured in microns, hehe). She ate all the pieces I gave her without any problem and would probably have gone for more, but I decided to end it there and just gave her a bottle instead. Keep in mind that although she's tasted various toys, cloths, and probably even the dog, she hadn't ingested anything up to this point except her milk, prescribed drugs, and yes, probably even a couple of dog or cat hairs, haha. So, hooray for Giggles! What's that? Rice cereal? Pshaw!

Mad Eyes

While putting Pumpkin to bed the other night, we had a brief *lesson* on eye anatomy. It all got started because I was explaining to him that some words have more than one meaning. And, I don't know why we were talking about that...I think because he wanted to know what a "fan" was...as in "railfan."

Anyway, I mentioned that pupil was another word with several meanings, and that led us to talking about our eyes and how we can see in the dark and also keep bright light from hurting our eyes. Even though it was late and way past his bedtime, Pumpkin was so into our impromptu lesson that I let him do a little science experiment. I faced the night light and had him look into my eyes while simultaneously switching the night light back on. Et voila! Pupil contraction in action! Pumpkin thought that was the most awesome thing he'd ever seen. (Btw, "awesome" is his current word so everything is awesome anyway...but this one rang of the truth! I swear!). Anyway, he was so amazed by how our eyes work that every night now, he wants to turn all the lights off and tell me everything he can see in his room in the dark. Part of me suspects that he's just trying to extend his bedtime, but it's actually very cute seeing him so excited about something like this. Only problem is that I inadvertently interchanged *pupil* for *iris." Oops!


Actually, I only realized my mistake because I told him that I wasn't sure what the name was for one of those parts, and I promised to look it up and teach it to him tomorrow. Guess I have some more 'splaining to do.

Albert Einstein was a Dummy?

No, obviously, he wasn't, but there was some doubt about his intelligence when he was a child.

By now, many of you are aware of our search for a new school for Pumpkin. He has been attending Ricks School for Gifted Children, but I'm extremely undecided about whether he ought to continue there or enroll elsewhere. For starters, Pumpkin does not want to return to Ricks. He's told me so on at least two separate occasions. Also, well, there's the tuition, which seems outrageously expensive to me for a preschool. I mean, it's more like tuition for a year of college...community college anyway...or possibly even a year of grad school...part-time...at in-state residence rates.

Whatever. My point is that I've been looking around at other schools trying to find one that's a good fit for Pumpkin, but so far, I haven't had much luck. The thing is that I'm not altogether certain that Pumpkin NEEDS to be in a special school, but I'm also not altogether certain that he doesn't. If I knew with absolute certainty that he did, then I would find a way to come up with the tuition no matter what. But I just really don't know.

Today, I was reading up on a school called Community School for the Gifted. It's slightly more affordable than Ricks, plus I have the option of only sending him for 3 days instead of 5 (which I'm totally against, btw, but which is what Ricks has him in for next year). One of the items I was reading was an article about the special needs of gifted children, etc. Apparently, gifted children have a different way of learning, and they often do poorly in regular classrooms because of it. This, in turn, leads them to drop out of high school at the same rates as the lowest 2% of the general population (the other side of the special needs spectrum), which is something I mentioned in a previous post (I just hadn't heard yet about the different ways of learning).

Among the characteristics of giftedness are: an obsessive need to understand, perfectionism, and a need for logical analysis...among others. And although I can see the entire list of characteristics in Pumpkin, I still have trouble believing that he may truly be *gifted.* When he pesters me with questions about why, where, when, etc, I literally yell at him to please stop. (Hey, at least I say please.) All of this pondering only brings me back to square one. I have an appointment to tour a Catholic school this afternoon. I'll keep y'all posted.

Books Books and More Books

I just noticed how behind I was on my reading list. Well, it's updated now. I'm currently reading the Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean. It's an interesting depiction of dementia and also of the siege of Leningrad of which I admit I know next to nothing. As I read these books about life during war, I just can't quite picture it. I mean, I can imagine it, but I somehow can't conceive of living that way. Air raids, sirens, packed in with hundreds of other families. I can barely conceive what it would've been like for us had we still been living in Seabrook when Hurricane Ike hit. No power or clean water for weeks with a baby and a small child at home...but in our own home at least. So picture me...boiling water to prepare formula for Giggles. Personally, I'm drawing a blank.

I actually had to put the book aside last night to finish reading the book for my mom's book club. We met tonight on what just happened to be the coldest night we've had all week. Per my weather bug, it's 5-degrees outside. Yikes!

Well, the kids are asleep, and I already forgot what I was going to say so I'll just say goodnight. Now, I'm off to continue reading Madonnas of Leningrad.

Pumpkin's Birthday Bash

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We originally meant to hold Pumpkin's birthday party on his birthday, but preparing for Giggles' baptism took more time than I'd figured on so we had to postpone the party. Even so, we rushed around madly to pull it off in time.

I found a very good price on a bounce castle for Pumpkin's party but completely forgot to order a cake so my dad had to run to the bakery bright & early on the day of the party to place the order for me. Whoops! The night before the party, we left QT playing with his cousins, dropped Giggles off with Grandma Toni for some one-on-one Grandma time, and we took a much needed break by going out to...you guessed it, Salsa's. Oh well.

On party day, with cake crisis averted, the Mans headed to Sam's to pick up food & drinks for the party, I ran to Target and the party store for the last few items I still needed, and QT & his mom stayed home with Giggles. Meanwhile, next door, the *girls* and Pumpkin got started with the decorations...in between playing on the bounce house of course.

The party was a blast! Our theme was Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones. Our pinata was a huge, multicolored dinosaur straight out of the book, and for dinner, we enjoyed dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets! We had various activities for the kids including a fossil dig in my mom's backyard. Mom wasn't too happy about that, haha.

We kinda forgot that time moves differently back home. We started the party at 3:30, but we had guests arriving up until 6 or so. It's just the way things are done back home. No biggie. The party was still fun. We just didn't get to take many pictures of the late arrivals. Also, for you Coloradoans reading this blog, this should really help explain a lot about me (us). :)

Giggles Baptism

Here's the picture of Giggles from the invitations to her baptism. It was taken about a week before we left for home right after she turned 3 months old.



Here we are with her Godparents, the Mans, at the baptism.

Co-Captain's Log: Day 14

Stardate 04012009
 
By the 2nd to last day of a roughly 2200-mile road trip with your spouse, 2 small kids, a dog, and a truckload of Christmas, birthday, and baptism supplies/gifts, you start to feel a little on edge perhaps even, dare I say, desperate. Desperate along the lines of...."gee, this small windblown nowhere town sure seems friendly. Maybe we should just settle down here. Oh, and look, there's a Dairy Queen!"

Anyway, after spending Christmas Eve with my family, we spent the next two days visiting QT's parents. We even found time to attend a friend's 40th bday party...a party which my parents crashed after midnight just as QT & I were preparing to leave. My mom joined the birthday *boy* in downing a few shots of the finest te-kill-ya before they finally agreed to go home with us. We attempted to take my dad's keys away from him, but in the end, we were too tired to argue so we just let them go (and yes, they made it safely).

The next couple of days were spent getting ready for one party or another. First up was Giggles' baptism, which went well enough. She was gifted with a bunch of cute clothes, which I totally wasn't expecting (the gifts, I mean). Then came Pumpkin's birthday, which we essentially celebrated twice. Once on his actual bday then again the day after with a birthday bash.

On Pumpkin's birthday, we took him and *the girls* (his cousins) to the mall where we rode the bi-level carousel, ate some chocolate from the Rocky Mountain Choc Factory, ate McD's (ugh), ending at the mall's indoor playground.

I'll post about his birthday party separately. The day after the party was New Year's Eve. On a whim, my sisters and I decided to keep the bounce castle for another day and organized a small family shindig to ring in the new year together replete with SingStar Abba version!

We were supposed to begin our return journey the next day, but we hadn't even started packing so QT & I decided, what the heck, let's hang out for one more day. We finally left on Day 12 of our trip. We didn't finish packing until late morning, and coupled with my *vow* to end each day's driving at a more decent hour, we only made it to San Angelo, where we once again enjoyed our Texas-shaped waffles for breakfast. The next day, we headed out as bright and early as possible...given that QT & Pumpkin took us on a short detour through the San Angelo Rail Museum. We drove for about 6 hours and bunked in Amarillo before heading out again the next day. By this time, we were definitely feeling the cold.

*************
I've been working on this post on/off for most of the day in between feeding Giggles, changing diapers, listening to Pumpkin chatter, and staring blankly out the window. I'm tired and starting to feel a bit sick from the motion of the truck and reading the laptop screen so I believe that it's a good time to log off. G'nite!