Wink!

HL can wink!! :)

Charlene's birthday

Today is Aunt Charlene's birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! HL became upset when he found out and didn't have a present to give her. So, he drew a Viking ship on her card for her, instead. I certainly hope Aunt Charlene has a wonderful year this year- she deserves it. The last several years, I imagine, have been rather difficult for her since losing Uncle Bob. Just short of three years ago, my Uncle Bob and a young co-worker of his were near a tank full of anhydrous ammonia when it exploded. Bob acted quickly and dunked the co-worker in water to help stop the chemical reaction on his skin. But doing this prevented him from taking care of himself. After an emothional roller coaster ride in the hospital, he succumbed. The co-worker with him did finally pull through, though. He is a hero for saving his life- although Uncle Bob would deny that claim. He could scare the pants off you with his booming voice, but under that facade was a man who did whatever was needed and always took care of those around him. He worked very hard to provide for his family and reared five wonderful daughters. He was a good man, and he is missed.

Estes Park visit

Went to see my parents and two of my aunts today on Estes Park. They are all sharing a rental house for the month of February. In this house is a big jetta tub which the boys got to take a bath in. Boy, were they in heaven!! Both of them are bath-lovers and the size of this tub was almost too much for them to handle! Throughout his bath, HL was pretending the tub was the ocean and he was a diver and a pirate. After AW got out, we turned on the jets and HL exclaimed "It's a storm, mommy!" "This must be the stormy region...." He has such an imagination.

Pappy

Seven years ago today, my father passed away. It was quite a shock. Though he was a heavy drinker and partier, I never thought he would be gone at such a young age (46). That's one of the things that keeps me sober. This year, I didn't remember the date was coming up and was reminded by my mom. Don't know if that is a good thing or not. When I had my first child, I had often wondered what dad would have been called. After running a couple names through my head, I figured he would like something like pappy. He was an incredibly fun person to be around and I thought it was a fun kinda name. So that is what I tell my boys, I call him Pappy. Unbeknownst to me my sister the muse had also chosen that name. Coincidence? I like to think not. By the way, he's in section 13 and he's got a good ding on the bottom of his stone. I think he would have thought that funny too.

Guess the Baby II

8. 9. No hints this time. But I tell you tomorrow. UPDATE: answers in the comments. No peeking!

Guess the Baby

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Who they might be. Me My Gal My Sister the Muse Emerson Talvin AW HL Sorry Thane, I don't have a baby pic of you... UPDATE: Answers in the comments. No peeking!

Bird Emergency

Got to watch one of our Drs and a tech give CPR to a Blue and Gold Macaw today- very cool. I've actually seen several emergency procedures since starting my job and it surprises me how calm everyone is. They move very quickly, of course, but they all keep their cool and work together well. Anyway, this macaw was found in someone's back yard on Saturday when the high was in the teens- macaws are naturally found in South America- so, obviously, it was very ill. The tech, who is not only completely dedicated to animals but also highly capable, took the bird in and nursed it all weekend. It had lost the use of one foot, was extremely emaciated, dehydrated, and anemic. This afternoon, it's heart stopped. The Dr and tech jumped into action, put a tube down the bird's throat, gave it emergency drugs and proceeded with CPR. The tech breathed through the tube while the Dr gave chest compressions. They tried for some time, but unfortunately, the bird did not survive- it was far too ill.

Holy Shit!

So I was going to blog about AW, and his new found skill of opening the kid proof locks and how dangerous that will be because he is a little imp and likes to get into things. Just today we were down stairs and he started tossing CD's from the case onto the floor. I said no, and he just looked and smiled and tossed more CD's. Then I said Nooooo, he looked me in the eye the whole time I said it, smiled and tossed several more CD's, and then laughed in his best I'm going to rule the world bwahahaha. Yeah so AW opening child proof locks is not a good thing. anyway I was then going to contrast AW with HL. We installed the child proof locks just as HL was starting to walk (a little before one years old). It took him all of two weeks to figure them out, fortunately after figuring out how they worked, HL never showed much interest in getting into them. But, today HL sounded out a word and then proceeded to write it out. My three and half year old son, wrote the word "booc". I had to help with the double o sound 'cause all he knows are the short vowel sounds, and he told me he picked a c when I said c and k were tricky, but he wrote the word book. Holy Shit!

HL and daddy

I think, I hope, that HL has come to a turning point with his daddy. Since Hubby went back to school and has been home with the boys, HL has been very attached to mommy. It was commonplace to hear HL bellow "not you, daddy, I want mommy!" Or even "go away daddy". But this evening, HL changed his tune. I tried to help him and was told "no, I want daddy." It sometimes takes HL a while (months even) to adjust to new environs, so I'm glad to see that he's finally transitioning to daddy being the main caregiver. I came home from work with a terrible headache today and spent pretty much the entire evening in bed. It gave me an opportunity to hear Hubby and HL interact without my presence, and, I must say that listening to those two really made me smile. Hubby did an excellent job of maintaining his expectations in a rather compassionate way that HL responded well to. They got along beautifully. I suppose it is always that way when I'm not around, but all I get to see is when HL is anti-daddy because I AM around (obviously). Hubby has told me they do well together, but it was great to hear it first-hand. Sitting here thinking about it, I wonder if it's not so much that HL is anti-daddy when I'm around as it is that he's pro-mommy. I know that I have become more lenient since working full-time because I just don't see my boys enough. Don't get me wrong, I still have my expectations, but I think HL does get away with more when he comes to me. I'm more willing to help him dress, for instance, when daddy expects him to do it himself. And at bedtime, I relent when HL asks me to lay down with him- which brings up another whole issue... I know that HL is able to go to sleep on his own- he does it for daddy all the time. But when he asks me to lay down with him, I can't resist the opportunity to snuggle. Yes, it occasionally causes issues (sometimes he'd rather visit with me than sleep), but they can be dealt with. The one thing that bothers me about it is that when he stays with relatives, he expects someone to lay down with him- which they don't usually realize. So to our relatives who take HL overnight: I'm very sorry that he is needy at bedtime, but I'm just not ready to stop the cuddling- I simply love it too much!

AW is getting to be quite proficient at using his spoon lately. AW and I ate dinner by ourselves this evening and had quite a fun time with it. He started playing "peek-a-boo" with the spoon and really tickled himself. There's just something about hearing children laugh (especially those you're close to); it's so sincere and heart-felt. AW is also picking up words very quickly nowadays. Some of his newest are: treasure (comes from having a big brother that loves pirates!), potty, "where are you?", and sit down. He also says thank you, sorry and please on cue. And every once in a while, you'll hear him say "love you". Oh, the joy!

HL non-nap update

So HL is still being very good, but one thing does have us a little concerned about giving up his naps. Since he was very young, he's exhibited the strange behavior of running back and forth while holding his breath and clenching/unclenching his hands. In the past week of no naps, this behavior has happened more frequently. While we don't know that it's indicative of anything wrong, it still concerns us to see it increase. Is he tired? Overstimulated? Manic? Something else? We're not sure. Yesterday I asked how he was feeling while doing this, and he answered "happy"- that was a relief, at least. We are considering having him take naps still, but shorten the time. Any suggestions? We'll keep you updated...

AW gettin' bundled

Getting bundled up for the snow... Notice that both of his loveys are in the picture- his blankie ("wee-wee" as he calls it) and Elmo (aka "melmo"). UPDATE by Hubby: That's AW's work. He put the mitten on and the hat.

HL's snow angel

HLcreating a snow angel.... And the final masterpiece (HL asked me to post this picture as well).

HL's non-nap time

Well, it finally happened. HL no longer takes naps. For about two weeks he couldn't fall asleep at night before 9:30 or 10, so we decided it must be time. And truth be told, our sweet little HL seems to be back. The week previous he tended to be demanding, short, and rude quite often but his attitude has improved markedly since cutting out his nap. I anticipated that life would get ugly for some time without naps but was apparently wrong. Who knew?!?

Favorite Posts

Started a sidebar section for favorite posts. If you have any nominations, let us know. The first is this post.

IE...

I had meant to post on this a while back, but never got around to it. So here goes. About a week ago, (or maybe it's been two now) I found a neat little word match game to stick into my sidebar (that area over there on the right). I stuck it in the template and opened up my FIREFOX 1.5 browser and it looked great. A day later my wife was visiting my sister the muse and tried to show her our blog. My wife told me that the sidebar would appear briefly then disappear and be gone. Hmmm. I didn't think much of it cause my sister the muse has an old computer she bought from her work. I figured that it had some weird security setting that prevented the sidebar from displaying. A few days latter I was at another computer showing off my blog, and low and behold, the sidebar would appear briefly then go away. Well to make a long story short, I discovered that while my blog looked great in my FIREFOX 1.5 browser, IE did not render the size of the new cool word match game correctly. Consequently it made the sidebar about four pixels to big so it had to shift down below the main blog area. So if you had visited before and did not see the sidebar for awhile, that's why. Because I can't change everyone’s browsers to FIREFOX 1.5, I moved the cool word match game to the bottom of the main area, and stuck a pretty hard hangman game in its place. Just one more reason to ditch IE. Like I needed anymore... So that brings up another topic. A good friend was over and we were discussing windows installs. I am the type that knows enough to get myself in trouble so when I want to do anything radical I pass it by others. Anyway, we got to discussing freeware apps and he turned me on to one of his sites. Basically it's a forum about freeware alternatives to major applications that you think you can't live without. These applications are often open source, meaning other developers can make plug-ins for them so the original creators don't have to add all of that "functionality". This often makes them less obtrusive and more resource friendly. Here is the best part though, they are FREE. Yes FREE. Do the math: MS office, $250; Adobe Photoshop CS, $795; being able to save a document as a .pdf for free, priceless. Anyway I asked him to write up what his optimum XP install looked like. Here it is. I want to reiterate, this man is perhaps the most computer literate person I know, and I know a bunch of techies. If there is a computer Guru, he is it. My next install will look a lot like his. I'll link his site under the suggested reading category on the sidebar. But if you missed it up above, here it is again Open For The Masses

Happy Valentine's Day

Cookies and diaper changes

We had a very nice surprise show up this afternoon- cookies from Laura. And, I learned the (so far) only surefire way to get AW to lay still through a dirty diaper change- give him a homemade Laura cookie! Worked like a charm. He's at the age where getting his diaper changed is, to him, tantamount to being tortured. For any of you who haven't experienced it, changing a dirty diaper on a 20 month old can be dangerous business!! A little more on Laura... Laura is amazing. She remembers every special day and sends cards without fail. Many a time she has comlpetely cheered my day. I can only dream of being as thoughtful as she is. Thank you Laura!!

Today's Random Photo- Rattlesnake!!

Believe it or not, this is an injured rattlesnake that was brought in to my work- and our widlife doctor actually fixed it up! We think it was maybe hit by a motorcycle, causing the big gash in the side of it's head (next to the handler's right hand). The technician and doctor carefully sedated it and sutured it up. Neither of them had ever worked on a rattlesnake before, and they were both rather nervous- as was the handler who had the job of holding it's head while being sewn up. Despite the tension, everything went well and the snake was released back out into the wild. Here are a couple more photos from that day. As this story illustrates, I often come home with fascinating stories for my family- usually regarding wildlife that we've treated. We'll treat just about anything that comes in our door, except skunks. And I'm not sure about Prairie dogs (since they can possibly carry the plague). I've seen hawks, owls, bats (only dead ones), raccoons, foxes, a coyote, even an eagle. Very cool. By the way, the handler that brought us this snake runs an outfit called "Snake Wranglers". He loves snakes and will rescue thems whenever called.

I've started to move the posts from the old blog. You can find them in the archives. They were formatted to a different style, so some of them look funny. I'll try to fix them, but I ain't making any promises.

Brothers

HL and AW both received Valentine's Days cards with stickers in them from Grandma and Papa (thanks mom and dad!). HL promptly opened his stickers and decorated the back of his card with half of them. AW, of course, had to follow suit immediately thereafter. AW simply adores his big "Bubbo", as he calls HL. And I believe HL is well-deserved of that praise. He has had (and still has) his share of "rough days" since AW was born, but for the most part, I have been impressed by and proud of the way he acts toward his little brother. Since day one, he has helped us take care of him and has exhibited very thoughtful behavior. Just this evening when I was reading AW his bedtime story, AW said "juice" a couple times. Not a mintue later, HL came to us with AW's juice cup saying: "I heard AW say juice, Mommy." Wow. AW shows his adoration daily; he gets excited and yells "Bubbo, Bubbo!" with a huge smile on his face whenever he first sees HL, reaches out for Bubbo when he's scared, runs and grabs his coat when daddy tells him they have to pick up HL, and imitates him constantly. Watching my boys interact and show their love for one another brings me such joy....

Today's Random Photo- HL's 2nd Birthday

The face says it all! This was HL's second birthday party, when he was completely enamored with Bob the Builder. For about two years, our lives were saturated with Bob, Scoop, Lofty and all the rest of Bob's crew. Since then, HL has become more interested in Superheroes, armies, and dinosaurs, but construction still ranks pretty high in his book. Anyway, HL had a great time at his 2nd birthday party. Lots of friends and family were there to celebrate with us. Right next to HL in this picture is his second cousin Isabella. We do have a couple shots of Talvin, HL, and Isabella all together with the cake- they were all born within 10 months of each other and therefore, love to play with each other at family get- togethers. I am very excited to watch my children grow up with lots of family around- that is something I never had. It has been somewhat of a learning experience for me to be with Hubby and be able to enjoy extended family within 50 miles of our house. I have even been a little envious at times. But now, I get to live it all through my children. They have extended family on both sides and we try to get together with them as much as possible so our boys are able to form tight bonds with them- something that is extremely important to both Hubby and me. Here are a couple more photos from that fun day....

A stroll through RMNP

Yo Ho Ho Ho & a Bottle of Rum

It's Not About the Cartoons

So, I've been thinking about Iran a lot lately. I am very frightened by the Iranian president. He is a devotee of the "end of the world is coming" sect of Islam and I am pretty sure he thinks Allah allowed him to become president to set the stage for that end. That's a little unnerving to me... I can't help but wonder if the rioting over the cartoons published 3 months ago is a test. A test to see just how angry they can make the "Muslim street". A test to see what the Wests reaction would be. I can absolutely see this rioting over the cartoons as being a test run. Imagine what's in store for us when they can do this with just cartoons? Put together a man who wants to end the world and some other guys who want to remake the calaphite, add in what we saw in France, and now this - I am very concerned... It's not about the cartoons, it's about him. ←

Today's Random Photo-

This is my sister KM and her husband, AG, in what I think is technically called a car- although I'm not entirely sure that it is! The two of them took an adventure to Europe several years ago and visited a friend of AGs in germany. I believe this might be his vehicle, though I don't recall for certain. Anyway, can you imagine driving around in that thing? I'm so used to my truck that I would feel as though my butt were dragging on the ground! I do have to admit that parking would certainly be easier than it is in a minivan, though...

Go to sleep!

Here it is 9:38 pm and HL is still awake. He goes through these stages where he won't fall asleep before ten for several nights in a row and it is superbly frustrating! Why does this happen? He went to preschool, got plenty of fresh air, and we did the usual bedtime routine- just like any other day. Except that he's still up. I find that the one thing that saps my patience the fastest and most consistently is when my children refuse to fall asleep when they should. My expectations are that both kids will be asleep by 8 and the rest of the evening is mine and Hubby's for couple time or alone time- not fight-with-the-kids-to-go-to-sleep time. It leaves me rather irritable... I read in Dennis Prager's book Happiness is a Serious Problem about how expectations can be responsible for our unhappiness. If we didn't expect a certain outcome, we won't be unhappy that it didn't happen as planned. Makes perfect sense to me. But this is something I really struggle with. I often have such vivid expectations in my life, that I invariably end up disappointed. Perhaps if I expected Hayden to be up until ten....

Wind Goddess Definitely sounds like me- how about you? What Elemental Goddess Are You? (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water) + Pictures + brought to you by Quizilla UPDATE (by Jer): I am a water goddess, doesn't sound much like me, but maybe that's because guys don't make good goddesses... Usualy (last bit added for political correctness. Don't wanna to be labled homophobic ya know)

We're both Ents

Entish Two Ents, one family. Guess we're meant for each other. To which race of Middle Earth do you belong? brought to you by Quizilla UPDATE: If you go take the test, please leave a coment about who you are. We'd love to know which race you belong too.

I'm an Ent

Entish Go here to find out who you are...

The Way of Words

At AW's age, HL and I were having full blown conversations. He has an amazing grasp of language and once he got to talking, there was no looking back. For the most part his words are easily understood and he has an incredibly large vocabulary, stringing together long sentences like this one I wanted to blog about back in June, "Daaad... When it's Christmas time again you need to get me a fire hydrant statue to go with my fire engine statue. O-kay?" (Lest you think I'm making it up, I had it saved as a draft. That's a direct quote.) Because AW is younger, we knew his language skills would take time to develop. It's hard to develop language skills when everyone else talks for you, and he obviously does not get as much direct stimulation as HL did. We've not been overly concerned about AW’s lack of speech, but it sure seems as if he's been struggling a bit. He has always made all kinds of noises: he is great at mimicking sounds, clicking, smacking, etc., he even tries really hard to whistle. One of his favorites is growling like a lion, or a bear, or a tiger, or dinosaur, or a dragon, or a pirate, or a... He's been using single words for some time now, starting of course with mama. He knows dog and Elmo, brother, ship, Nemo, bar (as in banana bar), banana (though not with bar) and others; though if you did not hear him talk everyday it would be difficult to understand most of the words. For instance "fish" comes out like wheesh, (usually used in the context of goldfish snack crackers, as in I want wheesh), and train comes out like gee (with a hard G) and ja-ja for Jake (our dog). Some words aren’t even in the ball park, for instance all boys have a wee wee - it's just usually not their blankies. (Sorry son.) Now like I said, my youngest has a fondness for making sounds, and he sprinkles his single words liberally in his nonstop AW babble. In fact he must take after his aunt 'cause it's hard to get him to keep quiet sometimes. More recently the pace at which AW acquires new words has been rapidly increasing. He now typically picks up a word a day, and the words he knows he's been refining. Then last Friday, he picked up the word eat (he is a BIG fan of eating) and for the first time he put two words together "eat wheesh". I think he's getting it...