Old Blog Posts: October 2008

That’s what Will calls the alphabet.  When he wants to play letters he sings

“a,b,c…ME”

Or occasionally “a,b,c,b,ME”

(because the song ends, of course, with “won’t you sing with ME”)

The song count in iTunes in the purchased folder.  Because in it is every song you’ve ever purchased, and if you’ve been using iTunes exclusively for music for as many years as Nic and I have and you should take a look at the number of songs there and multiply them by $1, it’s enough to make a person start pirating music.

Just a little note that since things have calmed down for us, I’m doing a better job of uploading pictures regularly to the usual spot.   Just posted some of Will playing in the snow.

It snowed for the first time this season last night (last time it snowed: May).  When Will woke up Nic took him to the window to show him, and Will said “cold!  Santy Claus!”

I was so excited!  He equates snow with Santa Claus and we never taught him that!

He also kept calling the snow “cream” as in ice cream.  Which he loves.

This morning Nic and I were upstairs talking about life insurance and we heard some commotion downstairs.  Nic asked me to check on it, and when I did, this is what I found:

Will sitting at the kitchen table with a gallon of ice cream and a spoon, happily eating away.

I LOVE THAT KID!

I love that he is such a go-getter.  He doesn’t see obstacles, he sees OPPORTUNITIES.  He wanted some ice cream, so he opened the freezer, got it out, took it out of its bag, took it to the kitchen table, opened the lid, climbed up on the counter, got a spoon, took it back to the table and had himself an ice cream snack.  I know in some households that would probably be naughty behavior, but in this household it’s awesome behavior.  Self-sufficiency and problem solving are way cooler than a diet without ice cream.

Last week Nic and I were listening to the radio as we drove somewhere and as we became irritated with a political ad, Nic said he’s really glad that we don’t have TV right now because we’re protected from the political ads.

I laughed and said it’s a good thing they haven’t infiltrated Hulu.com.  And then said it would probably be pointless for McCain to advertise on hulu because I’m sure the viewers are overwhelmingly young and liberal.

This morning I pulled up Chuck to watch the latest episode with breakfast and was dismayed to hear these words:

“This episode has been brought to you by Barak Obama for America.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

He just lost my vote.

Damn greedy politicians.  Ruining my election-free zone of happiness.

Yesterday Will stuck a dime in my cd player and in my attempt to get it out I pushed it in and now my cd player doesn’t work.  So I spent some time researching how to take the dash off (which isn’t going to be easy).

And then tonight we came out of our wedding reception to find the window smashed, glove box open, and gps gone.

Got lucky, though, because it could have been a MUCH colder night to drive an hour and a half home with no window!

The part that really sucks is that even though we’ve parked by that venue before, I told Nic as we were leaving the car that I didn’t feel awesome about it.  That it made me nervous.

Plus we said some pretty nasty stuff to GPS Girl right before we left her that last time because she gave us slightly wrong directions.  So maybe it wasn’t a theif after all.  Maybe she jumped out of the glove gox, grabbed her charger and stand, and flung herself out the window as a way to get back at us for being so mean to her all the time.

I’m pretty bummed about all the car $$ I’m losing.  But I’m pretty sure I’m going to blame the increase in crime on World Depression II (what Nic and I decided this will be called, based on the naming conventions of The Great War changing to WWI) and just add it to my collection of “back in my day” stories that I will torment future children with while I explain to them how back in the olden days we had to buy the chemical-filled veggies because of the tragic economy and rampant unemployment.

And my story doesn’t suck as much as Bernadette’s (who rode home with us tonight after helping the wedding coordinator [so she suffered from frostbite, too]).  She had a new job lined up at Citi Financial, was all set to start on Monday, got her formal job offer and gave her two weeks notice at her old job, was sitting there at her Last Day at her Old Job yesterday and got a call at 2pm saying that they were taking back her job offer due to market conditions.  And her old job wouldn’t take her back because they won’t reverse resignations.

Now THAT is a World Depression II story.

We took The Boo to Boo at the Zoo tonight and had a great time.  He went as a chicken, and totally got it.  He flapped his arms and everything!  He was very excited about all of the treats (they had lots of trick or treating stations) after he got over the fact that the zoo wasn’t set up like it normally is (that freaked him out enough to make him stay close and hold our hands).

The hippos and lions were so much more active than normal–they put on a great show.  And we had a lot of fun seeing all the kids’ costumes.  There was a homemade costume that was the coolest ever.  It was a dinosaur skeleton.  Tail, scull and everything.

I’ll upload pictures of our little chicken tonight. 

When we were living in England, I teased Kelly mercilessly because she was pretty sure that every black man on television was either Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow (and Star Trek The Next Generation) or Worf (also from Star Trek The Next Generation [and DS9]).  And to be fair, those two men pretty much DID cover every black man we saw on tv.

As the years passed, that joke continued.

Tonight, I was trying out a new-to-us show, Samantha Who (an aside: it’s adorable).  So we’re sitting here watching the show and working (me) and playing video games (Nic) when Nic says “hey–did you see who that was?”

And I said “ummm…no.”  And he said “It was Charlie from The West Wing!”

“No it wasn’t!”  I said.  “That guy is like a million years old!”  And Nic said “No!  It was Charlie!”  And I rewound it.  And it wasn’t Charlie.  “But it might be Levar Burton, KELLY” I told Nic.

And then we went back to watching the show.   And the character came into a new scene.  And tilted his head a certain way and…

HOLY CRAP!  IT’S TUVOK!

It really WAS a black man we knew.  It was Tuvok from Star Trek Voyager.

Which proves that Kelly really wasn’t so wrong after all!  There really ARE only three black men in Hollywood, and they’re all from Star Trek!

Will is sleeping with a pumpkin these days.

When we walked through the Farmer’s Market in Manitou this weekend one of the vendors gave him a little baby pumpkin.  He decided that he needed to sleep with it.  We’re not sure why, since he has a strict No Stuffed Animals In Bed policy…but apparently pumpkins are okay.

Heather tried to teach him to say “Obama” while she was here.  (She tried for “Obama, ‘08”) but Will just kept saying variations of “mama.”  And now when we read books, he keeps pointing out the “O’Mommas” in them.  Clearly Obama has the toddler vote safely locked up, though, since they would all just assume they were voting for a-mama.

I wasn’t going to vote, since both candidates piss me off equally, but then Sarah Palin sorta changed my mind and then I found out that Colorado is a swing state, so now I’m going to vote cause I want to be part of Colorado going blue for the first time in like 100 years.  It will be really exciting for me.  The last time I voted my vote was kicked back because my signature didn’t look remotely like the prissy signature I had when I first registered to vote and still wrote all of the letters in my name.  That sort of put me off voting for a while because I read up on all the small issues to, and then it turned out that my vote really DIDN’T count.

This time I’m going to go in person, just to make sure they don’t spring a “we don’t care how you feel about things, sloppy signature lady” on me again.

Tomorrow I’m hoping we’ll make it to Boo at the Zoo–the zoo’s Halloween program.  I think Will will be going as a chicken, if I can find the chicken suit I picked up for $3 at the end of last October.  Otherwise he’ll go with the age old crap my-mom-doesn’t-have-time-for-this costume of a cowboy hat.  Either way, I’m pretty sure he’ll rock it.

Pictures from our weekend are uploading.  This is the first visit that it felt like Will really “got.”  When we said goodbye, he understood that they were going back to Seattle.  This morning he didn’t ask about them, because we said goodbye yesterday.  He gets it now.  Some highlights:

–  Going to the pumpkin patch that last year turned out to be such a bust and this year turned out to be…closed.  But we called the number on the sign and Heather convinced the lady to let us put some money under a pumpkin.  (Which could just be the start of a hilarious Easter Egg like hunt.)  We went through the corn maze (Heather said she loved corn mazes)…but 15 minutes later we were totally lost and I don’t think Heather loved corn mazes anymore.  I almost peed my pants laughing, Will kept shouting “Gran-PA!” and in the end Tony had to come in the exit, find us, and lead us out.  We were pretty sure we were just going to have to live there and eat corn for the rest of our lives.  Will got sorta scared at the end (I think he knew we were lost) and insisted on riding on my shoulders.  Heather got sorta scared at the end, and insisted on riding on Erik’s shoulders in the hope that she would be able to see over the corn and find a way out.  (She couldn’t.)  I’m thinking rematch next year.

–  Will’s first train ride.  We took the cog railway up to not the top of Pike’s Peak on Sunday (high winds and blowing sand prompted them to only take us to 12000ft).  Like all of the best tourist spots (Disney World…and…Disney World) it put Will to sleep.  He enjoyed the beginning of the ride (was very excited to be on a train) and then crashed out in my lap, which was perfect.  The views were spectacular and we had perfect timing with the fall colors.  We also got to hear the tour guide curse into the microphone when a gust of wind blew someone’s hat into a lightbulb and it burst in the cabin right behind ours.

– The Cave of the Winds!  I’ve wanted to go since we moved here, and two years later, we finally did!  It was so cool to see all of the limestone formations, even if Will was a total toolbag the whole time.  I’m pretty sure everyone in our group went out and bought up a giant bag of birth control after we left.  I know I considered getting an extra Mirena just to be on the safe side. 

– Hiking in Garden of the Gods.  On Saturday morning the grown-up boys got up early and went out for morning light photography (the joke was on them–some low laying fog created a nice barrier to any morning light) and then Heather, Will, and I met up with them to hike Will’s favorite trail.  The moment we drove into Garden of the Gods Will started saying “Trail?  Please?  Trail?”  He loves stomping around, and we noticed a HUGE difference in his stability in his new hiking boots versus the old hikes we took where he wore his sandals!

– Tony’s birthday cake.  One of Heather and my cutest creations.  It was totally adorable.  So what it if was straight out of a box and a can.  It didn’t fall, and that’s always a miracle! 

–  Sarah Palin jokes.  Heather does a really good “thanks, but no thanks.”

–  Will was a huge fan of the rental mini van and its side doors that open and closed via buttons.

Thanks for a wonderful visit, guys!  (We’re holding your face soap hostage so you have to come back.) 

I uploaded August and October pics in the usual place.   Didn’t take any on the big camera in Sept.

Will has nouns, adjectives, the occasional verb, and few all difficult-to-class sounds that he uses to fill in his sentences.

“ishi” (ee-shee) means something like “there it is!” or “got it!” Like this morning in the shower I asked Will to find the soap for me (it was hidden somewhere in the bath water) and Will spotted it and said “ishi soap!” and handed it to me.

“a la” sounds like “I like” (and that’s what Nic thinks it means) but I think it’s more of a “I want to talk about” or “tell me about” catch-all.  He uses it a lot.  As in “a la momma giraffes.  a la dadda giraffes.  a la shark bruce.”

Will also categorizes the world into mommas, daddas, and babies.   Lightning McQueen is Dadda McQueen.  The hoochie lion in The Lion King?  Momma King of course.  His Nan?  Momma Nan.  His Uncle E?  Dadda E.  Girls are mommas.  Boys are daddies.  And anything half the size of the original is a baby.

And today, I was talking on the phone to Kelly and Will wanted to talk.  I told him to say hello Kelly and he said “hi Kell!”  It was VERY cute!!!

“Off” is “oss” and “Puff the Magic Dragon is “Puss.”  But that’s okay.  Cause when I was four I didn’t have the “gih” sound (as in guitar).  In my head it was exactly the same as “kih.”  And I remember it vividly.  So I understand where he’s coming from.  He’ll get it eventually.