Un-cross that one off the list

After a second examination and x-ray, it appears there was no actual break. Merely soft tissue damage. Brandon is glad because he had been grounded after the initial diagnosis and is now cleared to fly. I'm glad, too. I am! Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the hand. It initially swelled so that his normally veiny and tendony hand was smooth like a baby's bottom. If that baby were particularly hairy. Then there was a bruise in the palm of his hand. Then that bruise migrated to his wrist bone. This was very strange since neither his palm nor wrist hurt. Anyway, he's still in some pain if he uses the hand much or knocks it into something unwittingly. He tried to distract himself from that by stubbing two toes over the weekend. Didn't work, just added to his list of sore parts. Oh well.

Birthday wish

Last Saturday, the 27th:

Me: So, today's your birthday. Big ol' 33. Palindrome. Last one of those for 11 years.
He: *blink*
Me: Anyway, is there anything, ya know, that you want to do today? Anything you've gone your whole life without doing? Any gaping holes of experience? (That sounds dirty.)
He: Hmmm. Poss. Lemme think. Oh yeah! I'm gonna break a bone!
Me: Not exactly the train track of thought I was on...

The bone broken is in his right hand on the outside. The result of a sideways karate chop into the end table leg. Fancy maneuver done while horsing around with the dog. Nicely done, Major!

Pumpkin Patch

Meredith and Amelia went to the pumpkin "patch." I say that because there were a whopping five - count them five! - pumpkins on site. Yee haw.

Stunning examples of parenting

Our neighbors had a party today. It was and 11am to 4pm open house/costume party/birthday celebration deal. They home school so wanted to spread the guests out over the day: home schooling friends earlier and regular schooling friends later. AC and I went over around noon and stayed for two hours. We witnessed the end of pumpkin carving, the entire pinata attack, the costume parade and cupcakes. The mom told me that some kids were there without their parents. She said apparently the kids are at the age where some parents just drop 'em off for the day. She and I agreed that was pretty unbelievable.

Around 2 -- three hours into the party -- a mother who'd slowed at the curb to punt her two boys out at the start came back to retrieve them. As the house mom met her at the door, the pick-up mom actually said, "Wow, it sounds like you're running a daycare!" I caught the house-mom's eye and shook my head. Just another lesson to file away for the future.

Brand new niece

Our nephew, Noah, is a big brother. Welcome to Abigail and congratulations to Kim and Justin!

High Desert Sunrise - view from our backyard

All about the eating

Sure, now the dog is interested in me, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Amelia started eating solid foods a couple months back. We started with runny rice cereal. Mmmm. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. We're trying to give her the best we can so went organic. It was so sweet and pure to feed our sweet and pure baby nothing but the purest. And then there was the recall. I looked all through our baby book but there is no entry for "Baby's First Recall." (In the current climate, I think it would be a useful addition.) So, back to Gerber that went and on to another brand full of additives - only for a bit 'till we could secure another organic brand.

Gerber compensated for the two boxes we sent back with three coupons for free cereal. But they haven't brought their organic line back. And that was kind of the whole point, so... Anyway, from cereal we hopped on over to carrots. We waited for Groms to visit and then did we ever have fun. And by we, I mean Groms and me. AC wasn't exactly on the same page.

Brandon and I spent an evening making baby food with the organic produce I had to drive an hour and a half away to buy. (Yes, the trip was combined with many other errands, thank you for asking.) AC has now had butternut squash, broccoli, red potatoes, pears, apples, apricot, Yukon Gold potatoes, parsnips!, Russet potatoes, avocado, carrots. cauliflower - I think that's it. She's eating lots better than the rest of us, I can tell you that.

With such a big change on the mouth end of the child, there have been some impressive changes on the tail end. Solids in, solids out. Brandon couldn't be happier with that change as he dealt poorly with the first six months of output. When I showed him what we have now and told him to just pop it right into the toilet, he excitedly exclaimed, "Oh yeah! I can totally get behind this!"

Special moments.

Wurds

Brandon and I have always delighted in coming up with fantastic names for children. This was to be phase one of the lifetime of abuse we had planned for the offspring. I think more than one of you breathed a sigh of relief when Amelia was presented.

One of the naming resources we threatened to use was the IKEA catalog. Naturally. Well, Brandon and I were instant messaging the other day and the typos were abundant. I typed "florr" instead of "floor." I then wrote, "Florr, the new product from IKEA." This is Brandon's response:

Try new Florr. In Woud, Kaerpit and the always Swedish Neo-Moderninst Minimalistic Semi-Constructionist, Konkreet.

File that one away under "names for future consideration."

We've got a Creepy Crawler

And she's covered with dog hair.

Eavesdropping

Not really. I was watering in the front yard yesterday when the neighbor kids walked out of their front door to the garage. Apparently their dad was in the garage. I didn't see him but I did hear him yell, "WHO TOOK THIS BIKE DOWN!?!?!" This was followed by some muffled kid speak which was overridden by lost-temper-style screaming from the dad. This guy is unusually quiet from what we've observed so I was pretty startled. I ran away. I then told Brandon about what I'd heard and how it freaked me out. He pointed out that we don't really know what was going on. It could've been a safety issue. For instance maybe touching dad's $3000 bicycle could get you killed.

Hmmm, to think I hadn't thought of it that way. Good thing Brandon's here to help.

HAPPY FOURTH TO YA!

Childrearing versus Housekeeping

Outside our living room is a small patio with a metal covering. The covering's shape is pleated and under each small peak is a space between it and the frame. Birds have taken advantage of these small, sheltered spots to build nests. I figure they are smart to do so because their work is protected from the crazy desert winds we get. Also a possibility is they are lazy because there's no balancing of twigs and other nesting materials to be done. They just have to pad their pads.

We've got a great view of these families from inside the house, getting much closer than we otherwise would. We also peak in with a mirror from time to time to see what's going on. We do this part when the parents are away, of course. One of the original nests has launched a couple batches of fledglings successfully. This nest is simply caked with poop. Poop upon poop, sometimes falling off in chunks. Another nest at the other end of the patio was remarkably clean. We saw birds in and out and had seen eggs within. One day I saw the mother feeding her hatchlings. After she had, she began cleaning her nest and it's surroundings. She was eating the poop. After I threw up a little bit in my mouth (much like a bird), I went about my day. A few days later, Brandon found a dead baby in a corner of the yard often visited by the dogs. He speculated it had fallen from a nest and been transported by a four-legged undertaker. I mentioned I had noted a stink over the last few days so Brandon got the mirror and discovered a dead baby in the clean nest. It looked about the same age as the other.

The only lesson I can draw is a clean house can be detrimental to your child's health and welfare. It would be careless of me to not heed this lesson, don't ya think? Ma Nature always knows best.

If You Don't Know Me, You Don't Know Who I am or Umpires Have Families, Too

A few Saturdays ago, Amelia and I visited Brandon at the baseball game. He was ump'ing home plate. She and I stood behind the bleachers for one of the teams. We stood in part because it was shaded and in larger part because I was wearing shorts and I have a policy to not sit down in shorts in public. As we stood and watched, women sitting in front of us began to complain about the ump. They weren't complaining to him, just about him. He didn't make calls loud enough for the spectators to hear. Yeah, and a few weeks before, he refused to call a ball as fair, he would only call them foul. Oh, but they liked Dave, now Dave you could hear. Not this guy, couldn't hear him.

So, I thought about things to say. I could point out that this umpire volunteered his time off - often his whole Saturday - to be here, in 100% polyester, in the sun, because he loves baseball and understands how important it is for these kids to have. Especially in a town like this with so few options. I could say, yes, he makes about 20 bucks a game, but that all he's earned hasn't come close to what he's spent on gear. I could mention that he studies the rules the eve of each game because he's very concerned that he do well by the kids. I could say that he told about refusing to call a fair ball because that's not the way of the real world and could be confusing to kids who are expecting only to hear the fouls called. In the end, I decided to go with my normal passive approach and simply watch them crumple over themselves in embarrassment after the baby and I met him at the fence to say good-bye.

Remember, If you don't know me, then you don't know who I am. Or how diabolical I can be. Mwa ha ha.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you if you fed the dogs last night."

"No, I thought you did it before you left."

"Crap! No! I left at 5:30. They don't eat until 7!. Man, that is the first time since we've had them that we've forgotten to feed them."

"Really? That's pretty good then."

**Blink. Blink.**

Don't make me put this down...

DSC01652.JPG, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Press Release

Ridgecrest, CA:

A coalition of Brandonia (The Fatherland) and Rebeccaslavia (The Motherland) announce the granting of Most Favored Daughter status to Amelia Charlotte. This decision follows Amelia Charlotte's recent move to cease her occupation of The Fatherland and The Motherland's capitol, MasterBedroom City. Amelia Charlotte has declared Nurserytopia as base of operations for periods of eight to nine hours per day. These hours typically occur overnight. The international community applauds this development as it expected to signal a shift toward normalized relations between The Fatherland and The Motherland. Additionally, it is anticipated the general health and well-being of all residents will improve with this sea change in the local environment.

Intervention

Dear AC,

Today you are four months old. You seem to be celebrating. You've decided not to sleep, to babble nonsense seemingly non-stop, and there was that weirdly paranoid episode when the cell phone rang and you burst into tears while looking over your shoulder repeatedly. Time for some truth, are you on drugs? Do I need to check the tiny pockets in your tiny clothes? They're there for a reason, aren't they? Who's your dealer? Is it little Maddy next door? I thought there was a little too much sparkle in her eyes. And she's always got new shoes. Well, at least she's successful. You've gotta admire the ambition, especially for an Air Force kid. Putting all that aside, seriously, what is your deal? You know you can talk to me. Well, not really since your handle on English leaves a little somthing to be desired. Just know we are watching you and your dad is tossing your crib as we speak.

Love,
Mama

How we roll

"Do me a favor and get the pooper scooper and pick up that dead bird. I'm going to mow the lawn when I get back."

"Ewww."

"Fine. If you're gonna grouse about it, I'll pick it up myself."

"I don't think it's a grouse."

"What?"

"I think it's a blackbird."

"I can't believe I walked into that."

--------------------------------------------------------

"That's why you wanted to have a baby."

"What?"

"So you could pull your boob out in public."

"Like I need a baby for that."

My secret shame

Cupcakes of Shame, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

I've been doing something since December that I'm reluctantly revealing here today. Those of you who've known me for years will recognize that this behavior is not the norm. Okay, here goes, I've been baking holiday-appropriate treats for Brandon to take to work and share. And, if that wasn't bad enough, the goodies have been accompanied by holiday-specific paper napkins. What the hell. I really can't explain it. Also, I plan these things weeks ahead of time and have the ingredients out and the cookbook open days in advance.

So, in the spirit of full disclosure, here's a picture of what went with Brandon to work today. These are yellow cupcakes with buttercream frosting and Easter sprinkles. For St. Patrick's Day I baked Irish soda bread and sent it in with green napkins. On Valentine's Day the featured item was white chocolate chip cookies with red, pink, and white M&Ms. Red napkins did the trick that day. Pre-Christmas was cranberry walnut bread. That was the first incident and I hadn't thought of napkins yet.

What's the next holiday? I need to get to work on my plan and also I need more seasonal hand towels. Oh man, there goes another secret.

Weekend visit to Ventura

Ventura Farmers' Market chard, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

We three trucked on down to Ventura for St. Patrick's Day weekend. The dogs stayed home, were fed by a neighbor, and were locked in the house at 4am by another neighbor who couldn't take the barking anymore. Oops.

Grandma Chris was in the 805 for a needlepoint retreat and we visited with her at her brother Tasker and his family's home in Camarillo. We had a great time and enjoyed some delicious grilled meat! We did that the afternoon of St. Patrick's Day after the husband and I took Amelia to her first parade. In all the years I lived a mere block off the parade route, I don't think I ever watched the thing. It's possible that it's 10am start was a little early for me on such a celebratory weekend, but more likely I had to work.

On Friday, when we got to town, we visited our friend Elizabeth and her son, Alexander. He's nine months old and just about the smiliest kid ever. Brandon enjoyed playing with his toy that enunciates letters when pressed. "Pee oh oh pee. Jay ee ar kay. A ess ess." You get the idea. (Note to self: do not purchase spelling toy for Amelia.) After our visit and a quick check-in at the hotel, we headed to Oxnard to our fave sushi restaurant. It'd been almost exactly a year since our last visit. And our baby is three months old. Hmmm, I'm thinking their sushi is powerful stuff.

We got up early Sunday and got to Pete's (popular) Breakfast House early enough to not have to wait. Yum. Squeezed in a visit to the cloth-diapering store. Brandon weighed Amelia before and after a wet diaper change and noted a half-pound difference. Hee hee. There he also elicited Amelia's first laughs while looking at herself in the mirror. We then headed to Pablo & Joanna's for a visit. Jo's sister, Meesh, came by (with noodle salad - so good) and Kevanie (that's Stephanie and Kevin) also made it over to see the kid.

The weekend marked some firsts for Amelia. First time in a dress (cute), first laughter, first trip to Ventura, first parade, and, the best, first time I put her in her bouncy seat in front of the t.v. so I could get a few things done. What? It was Simpson's, it's wholesome. ;)

Poor word choice

I listen to the news on the radio. I occasionally catch a bit on t.v. Once in a while I read a full story in the newspaper. In all of these media I have noticed the following: While being interviewed, police, victims, attorneys, and witnesses have referred to the alleged perpetrator as a "gentleman." Huh? The alleged attacker was a a gentleman? That's a little generous. I can think of a few other descriptors that are a bit more apropos. Maybe not polite, but is that really what we're going for here?

It's my dad's birthday

Photoshoot for Haku's birthday card, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

So, to celeberate, here are some pictures of the baby! What? That doesn't make sense? Fine. Look at her anyway.

Ed. note: I noticed my typo "celeberate," and was going to correct it, but now think it's a pretty good word. Feel free to use it and to celeberate my dad on his special day. ;)

Mine eye has seen the gory of the oozing of the goop.

But thankfully it's mostly just really red now. I saw the doc and got drops for the eye and a shot of penicillin in the rump for suspected strep.

Two things - 1. Why is it called "Pinkeye" when it is so very red? 2. People won't look directly into the eye. They fear it's power.

More importantly, Brandon is umping Pony baseball. They best thing is the all-polyester outfit. And the posing.

I thought this would come later

So you become a parent and you know that down the road this means you - through your loving offspring - will become exposed to contagious, creepy childhood maladies. What you don't expect is to wake up next to your fresh and unexposed to the petri dishes of daycare, playgrounds, and Chuck E. Cheese and find you have a raging case of Pinkeye. Gross. I'll spare you a photo. For now. No telling what I'll think tomorrow. I may post one then in a misguided quest for sympathy.

I've got a Major Pain

The leaf, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Cap'n Kitten is no longer. We now have a Major Pain living here. Brandon was promoted March 1. There was a five minute ceremony at the Marines' offices here. The second in command performed the ceremony as the number one guy was out of town. I think we got the better one of the two having heard the Colonel speak in public before. Awkward fellow. Anyway, there were about eight in attendance and I got to enjoy that uneasy feeling of being the only one in the room not standing at attention. Never sure how to handle that one. The senior Marine in Brandon's squadron, Flipper, and I had the honor of removing the captain's bars and replacing them with the golden oak leaves. I failed to understand the instruction to "place the stem parallel to the deck" but the promotion stuck anyhow. Afterwards Flipper commented that he missed a moment of the ceremony when Amelia, in her car carrier atop a desk, let one rip. That's our girl. She wanted to participate. Can you blame her? We had a family lunch out in town (fancy!). We then came home where I cermoniously chucked the pair of bars I had taken off earlier right into the trash. Brandon changed into his flight suit, switched to a new name badge bearing the proper title and headed off to work to try to remember to answer the phone with his new moniker. I tested him later - he passed. I think he'll do just fine.

Baptism

IMG_0695.jpg, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Amelia was baptized February 17 at Haku and Grams' house. Family friend, Philip, performed the ceremony as he did for our wedding. We had a fun day. Amelia excercised her lungs several times, slept some, and made the rounds. Click on this photo for an album of shots made by Grandpa Rob. Type http://lizedlund.com/Amelia/ for pics made by our friend (and photographer) Liz. I'm not able to make a hotlink for some reason - sorry.

Happy Valentine's Day to ya!

A different kid for a change

Jocelyn 2-11-07a, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Here's a shot of Jocelyn taken by Haku (Grandpa Scott) this morning. She's smiling because she gets to meet her cousin this Friday. She's been around for a while and has lots of tips on parental (and grandparental, natch) manipulation to pass along to Amelia. You're never to young to begin to hone your craft, afer all. When done properly, P/GM can serve a girl well for decades. Commence practicing puppy eyes!

I see you

Blue eyes, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

We have a button

Amelia finally gave up the stump at a mere four weeks of age. It took a while but we are quite pleased with the result. Let the raspberries begin!

Brandon's photos

Brandon uploaded some pics to the Flickr account after only a lot of nagging.

Click here for some from Pablo & Joanna's Labor Day bbq.

And here for some he took in Coupeville on Whidbey Island while training there this summer.

Silent Scream

Silent Scream, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

While at the doctor's office the other day, her pediatrician remarked that Amelia would have to learn to control her temper. What ever could he have been talking about?

Cuatro Generaciones

4 generations, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Amelia is so popular. She had a visit from Brandon's mom, aunt Val, and grandpa LeRoy (Poppo) last week. After that she had her first trip out of town to Santa Clarita and her first trip to a restaurant to meet Great-Grand Gramps Otto and Great-Grandma Eve. They were in SoCal already so the timing was perfect. Amelia is just checking people off the list left and right!

The baby had a checkup at two weeks and two days and is growing well. The kid's head gained half an inch, her length had increased by an inch, and she gained 14 ounces in nine days. Clearly she's getting enough to eat. As she should the number of times a day she requires Mama's services in that department.

Sushi - finally

After foregoing raw fish for the better part of a year, the sushi-fast was broken. Thanks to Grandma Chris' offer to babysit, Brandon & I got our first post-natal date. Amazingly, there is a decent Japanese restaurant in beautiful downtown Ridgecrest and there was plenty of room at the sushi bar last night. We tried to take pictures but the feeding frenzy was such a flurry of chopsticks and wasabi, none turned out. I was a little overzealous when I instructed the chef to make the Red Dragon roll "all the way" hot, but otherwise it was a perfect meal and good practice for our next trip to our truly favorite place in Oxnard - Yokozuna. Babies like sushi, right?

Hospital Portrait

Amelia's hospital pic in the Christmas getup they gave her. Poor kid.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Classic overindulgence, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Amelia surprised us all this morning when we found her passed out on the sofa, suffering from a bad case of New Year's regret. Some kids just don't know when to say when.

Hope the New Year finds you all in good spirits and good health!