Oh that's it..

One of the great things about kids of Sophie's age is that, like politicians, when they stumble upon a clever turn of phrase, they continue using it... they "stay the course" until it turns against them.
This morning Sophie repeated the gem I was trying to remember yesterday.

She takes on a very serious , careful demeanor as she explains this. Imagine her little fingers delicately gesturing to ensure you are paying close attentions.

"If you are very... very.. quiet. Chicken might give you tickle'ies on your nose."

True.

Those Kids O Mine

There are these moments with our kids that seem so utterly memorable you'd think...well that I would remember them. But in our busy lives, with one thing leading into another, things tend to sleep through the cracks. And as I get older, or the kids get more active (I don't remember which) those cracks get better every day.
Tonight at dinner for example....

Oh wait.

Here is something I do remember. Just a brief image, nothing I really expect anyone else to appreciate. We took a short walk tonight, scoping out the neighborhood for potential trick or treating sites (we'd like a reasonable safe area well lit etc..) There is a little court where the people tend to dress up their homes for X-mas, and sure enough the court was well done for Halloween as well. Enough set up. We were leaving the court, little Will was holding my big finger as we walked away. A streetlamp was illuminating us from behind and I saw our shadows. Daddy and son, holding hands stretched out fifteen feet in front of us. Sigh.

Blogger Flaky or FireFox 2?

Or both? I switched over to Firefox 2, and things have been a little less stable since doing so. Blogger is not particularly thrilled with the switch, which is funny, because it barely lets me use Safari compared to Firefox 1. Oh well. There will be a picture of Will up there sooner or later.

Scary Stuff

Tonight we took the kids to Trunk'r Treat, a parking lot, trick or treating event at the YMCA. Sophie went as a fancy dancing lady bug (with outrageous tu tu), will as a regular bug (a super cute bug of course). He dances too, but not when burdened by the candy bucket, extra warm clothing, and fear, plenty of fear.



There were your usual scary things, princesses and future IED-victims, as well as an inordinate number of star wars characters. The really fat Darth Vader was my favorite, Vader the Hutt. Which of these scared little Will to the point of honest to goodness tears? The baby (infant) in a lion costume (super cute).

Will was happy to recount his brush with death on the way home from the evening's event, alternating between big BIG lion, and tiny tiny lion. I am looking forward to lion related nightmares tonight. Baby lion nightmares.


Both Sophie and Will love to dance. For Sophie it is definitely a chance to dress up and try her latest moves. Often very modern. Will too, likes the dress up part, mostly in Sophie's old tutus and leotards (or lilly-tards as they are called). The other night Will dug into the dress up bx and pulled out what resembled a backless evening gown. Very fetching. He still has the body to pull it off, so we didn't begrudge him the chance.

We've all been fighting a nasty cough and sinus thing. I've had it all week, Carly just got hit hard with it today. There really ought to be a service when both parents get sick and the kids want to run around and play, or reread every book in their library.

On the tail end of an episode of Curious George we watched today (we are sick, some TV is okay) there was a message urging parents to read at least 15 minutes a day to their kids. Man, if we get a 15 minute break from reading to our kids, that would be unusual. The PSA didn't include a maximum amount. We did try to get Sophie to "read" (recount) one or two books to Will. The results are always pretty funny.

Fully Armed and Operational

I appear to have both internet and email access from school! It only took 6 weeks to fix that little problem. So now I am without excuse to update the blog. That is, except for my parents being in town, and having a pile of stupid withdrawl forms I need to fill out. But once that is done, I swear, more posts.

p.s. Toxic Waste Fire a good 20 miles away.
pps. Journay to SF for Reunion a (marginal) success despite two late planes, lost baggage, taking a wrong bus, leaving a purse in a restaurant, forgetting something at my parent's house.

Uncensored for your reading pleasure

The Assignment: Pick a philosophical theme discussed this semester, compare the way two of the films we watched treated that theme.

....The Matrix was a video game then they put on a metal hat an this is were the two moves to me are just alike because in Eternal Sunshine when he thought he was going crazy they had put on a metal hat like The Matrix. The reason is because the thing on there head is like something that keep him in a hold knew world...

You might want to make sure you got the Director's Cut of the Matrix and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, otherwise you might miss some of this students important analysis.

Poocasso

I was home early one afternoon a couple of days ago. The kids were napping, Carly stepped out to do some shopping. Around the time they normally awaken, I heard Sophie singing her ABCs and Will making strange gurgling noises. Now, Will can form quite a few words so gurgling like a baby is not so usual, not that weird, but a little out of the ordinary. Enough that sitting in the living room, I began to run scenarios in my mind. At first, I was dismissive, then I got this idea that he was choking on his tongue or something. So I crept to the door. Sophie was standing on her stairs, and looking guilty.
"Will made a poopy." She deflected.
This little announcement was not necessary. The room reeked of poo, and as I looked about, I say the poo smeared on the outside of his crib, all over the slats, and of course, all over Will. Now, you've probably heard "all over" before, meaning a couple of streaks here and there. No. Will was coated, his shirt, his hands and arms, his face, his hair, and yes that gurgling sound was not just baby talk, he had a foreign substance in his mouth. There was also dried poo bits scattered about the room. I quickly surveyed Sophie and seeing she was somehow poo free, I moved her quickly out of the room.
Then steeling myself I tried to figure out the best way to move Poo Boy. I grabbed a couple of washclothes from the linen closet and using them like oven mitts I lifted him out of the crib and into the bath. There I stripped him of his poo caked clothes and running the water with the stopper out, so the pooey water could drain I cleaned him off.
Did I mention he hates baths now?
Well he seemed to tolerate this one until I had to wash his brown hair. But, I was a man on a mission. And we plowed past that obstacle.
Meanwhile I was trying to keep Sophie out of their bedroom, so I was alternatively sending her for toys I needed, or just calling her into the bathroom to witness the bath. Somehow we managed to get washed and moved out into the living room. Will is happy to be naked so he didn't mind running around while I tried to clean their room.
Keep in mind. Two wide awake toddlers, one wet and naked running around the house, me trying to keep an eye on them and scrape dried poo off walls, cribs, and other things. As well as pull the sheets and blankets off and get them into the wash.
Eventually the room was clean, vacuumed, the dirty things were in the washing machine, and the windows were open. I got Will into some new clothes and we all settled down onto the couch. I could not get the smell out of my mind. I kept wandering back into their room and spraying some air freshener. Then I would inspect Will and Sophie to make sure I hadn't missed something. Finally, while inspecting Will I figured it out. He turned to smile at me, and I could smell it strongly in his breath.
We spent the next ten minutes brushing his teeth. This time I let him suck on the toothbruch as long as he wanted. Eventually the scent seemed to fade.
Of course, thinking about it now, still makes my stomach turn.