The Baby Juggler

Too Cute!

J had knee surgery recently (what kind of crack were we smoking when we decided to get a puppy the week I got a new job AND J was having knee surgery?).  So her knee is really hurting, enough that she is now back on crutches.  J and Mini were sitting on the couch reading books when Mini said, "I want yeeddel [little] purrrple scrutches.  Mommy will buy dem at da store."

Sorry, One More Post

I am a Dorothy Dunnett convert and addict.  I tried to read The Game of Kings about two years ago.  It was way over my head and a LOT of work.  It was, in fact, quite a struggle to read.  Then there was a scene that mildly horrified me and I just stopped and put it down. 

I occasional frequent a books board of one of my favorite authors and this author and these books just kept coming up.  Well, I read so much I literally run out of quality fiction that is to my taste, so I decided to try again.  I read beyond the point I stopped last time, even skimming some of the beginning.  I found I had to ignore many of the quotes, poetry, French quotations that I didn't understand or was too lazy to google.  I fell in love.  With an author, a series, a main character. 

Reading these books feels like what Cesar's dogs must feel like.  After a brief interlude with some other very good authors, I am back reading a second series and I feel like I am in the competent hands of a master.  So even though I am literally too stupid to "get" much of what she writes (incredibly, I truly think the author is Mensa material on steriods), she is such a fabulous storyteller that I get carried away anyway.

Anyone interested in the literary ride of their life?  Care for a challenge (get past page 100)?  Love to discuss Dorothy Dunnett with me?  Please?

Apa is Famous!

Happy Birthday to you, Apa!  I meant to post that yesterday, on your actual birthday but I went off on a tangent and, well, you know me, hon.  You are getting old now, aren't you?  I think you are maybe only three years from your goal of your own children.  Speaking of which, we are in a parenting class and were joking about being ten years younget than we are.  I said, "well, then I'm only 25" and another woman who must have been sleeping during the discussion said in insulting surprise (nee, shock, nee astonishment, nee flabbergastedness) "really!?"  Wow.  I really didn't think it was THAT much of a stretch but...  Well, anyway, here are some parenting things to look forward to...

Mini:

1) If I attempt to either help her onto or help her off (i.e. pick her up cause she takes her own sweet damn time) the bathroom step stool, she insists on starting again FROM THE BEGINNING.  This occurs even if she got herself onto the bottom step and all I did was attempt to pick her up.  She must go all the way back up to the second (top) step and climb back down again.  This applies to any action.  So it may be climbing into her car seat or pulling down her pants.  Lord save me from this child.  I am the least patient person on this earth.  Do you think I'm supposed to learn something from this?

2)  She saw our Chessie puppy trying to pick-up a piece of ice.  The ice slid across the floor and Mini said, "She's ICE SKATING."  The kid is a freaking genius.  She really scares me, sometimes.

Jr.:

1) has reached the apex of the whiny/squealy behavior.  I can only imagine it is downhill from here because it can't get much worse.  Privacy fences are very big around here and our Very Quiet Neighbors suggested that they replace the section between our houses.  They have two small kids and one on the way (very, very soon).  It's getting kind of nice outside and unless I listen very closely I can't even tell they are in their back yard.  Funny that, the fence that the Neighbor Man decided to build is about a foot and a half taller than the average privacy fence.  Although a fence is really not much of a sound barrier, I can only imagine they wanted as much of any kind of barrier between the whining/ screaming/ demanding two and a halfers and their mommy in mother rage AND puppy rage.  Where is my Prozac?  Anyone think I can afford to start now when nursing just twice a day (yes, g-d, I am still nursing twice a day, although some mornings Mini leaves for daycare without asking to nurse and I am NOT offering).

2) Jr. is all about J again.  For a while I had him back but I am the boogieman again.  Could it be my mother rage?  Poor guy.  He wants Mommy on Prozac.

3) Jr. just chats and chats away about any topic that comes into his head, mostly about the cars and trucks and excavators and bulldozers in his life.  He will discuss the finer points of each and also tell stories about them.  He can recite lines from the movie Cars.  He even corrects me if I get the line a leeetle bit wrong.  He is also very social at times, with a ready and resounding "yes" whenever an older child asks him to play.

This afternoon in the yard Mini and Jr. somehow ended up standing next to each other on a one story brick retaining wall singning "The Wheels on the Bus" in freaking UNISON (percisely "the babies on the bus go wah, wah, wah" line).  They were performing!  Oh my god, where was my camera to take a video?