My kid is brillianter than your kid

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Everyone looks at how their babies grow, how they move, the way they explore their world, and how they learn to do things and think “this kid’s a GENIUS!” Afterall, when you first met the kid, a year ago, it could barely open it’s eyes and had know idea you existed outside of them (or vice versa) and now they’re climbing, talking, playing,  screaming, stacking, dancing little people. If you don’t know any better, you’d swear your kid was developing and learning at a rate UNHEARD of in the world of pediatrics.

I can’t say I am not guilty of this. He’s my first baby, he’s growing so fast, I can’t help but be amazed, that is, when I’m not stressed by his antics. For example, he’s learned to climb on the couch. He’s still too short to climb up there, unassisted, so he has managed to take advantage of the gate situation. Let me illustrate: Deven’s play area is in the middle of the area, between the two couches, with a gate that connects to a wall by the bookcase, and circles around connecting to the edge of the long couch. Deven pulls his upper body up onto the couch by climbing the gate and pushes off the gate to get his whole body on to the couch. Brilliant. And he climbs over the side of the couch with such ease, landing on his feet. Well, most of the time, he actually eases himself onto the floor head first, but DON’T YOU SEE THE BRILLIANCE? Just when I thought I had it easy, he develops an escape route.

We had actually tried to get a video of him climbing off the couch. Most of the time he would stand there, like he wasn’t sure why everyone was watching him, and did finally do it twice, but my camera can only take 15 second video, so it would cut off just as he was reaching down with his foot. Actually, I did get one good take but Vance wasn’t satisfied with the background noise. So no video of our son’s brilliance. Ever.

There is baby news. Not for me or anyone in my family, but for a close friend. I would tell you, but I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate me spreading the word for her, especially since I’m not sure of who all she’s told. I’m excited for her. I’ve been anticipating something this exciting without having to get too involved.

I would love another baby, but in this frame of mind, the only thing that comes to mind in regards to pregnancy are all the bad things. I’m not too keen on dealing with the morning sickness, the insomnia, the gas, the 28 wk glucose screening, the snoring, the discomfort. I’m enjoying my little boy right now and the idea of maybe going to school next year. I know eventually the bug will bit again and I won’t care about what I have to go through to get it, but for now I’m just going to sit back and watch everyone else re-reproduce.

Thats actually all I was going to blog about. I have an ear infection and am on a course of antibiotics. Vance is building a garden in the back yard.  I’m hosting Thanksgiving this year and it’s going to be pretty good. I don’t go all-out for the sake of my sanity.

Now I depart. Vance is home and it’s time to eat dinner.

Do this, not that

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What I did on Monday instead of study.
 

My house is messy. The dishes need doing. The counters and the table are covered with papers and painting supplies. There are dvds and video games on the floor in front of the tv that the baby kindly removed from the shelves for us. There are books laying around on the couch, in the recliner, all that we rescued from Deven’s death grip. I need to clean today.

It’s cloudy, windy and humid outside. It had better rain and not tease me today.

I voted yesterday. And Vance voted. We voted the same. It was hell trying to calm Vance’s philosophical and political meltdown. He swears he just wanted answers and help understanding things so he can choose in good conscience, so I told him he wouldn’t react well if a bull came charging towards him horns first screaming “WHO AM I? I JUST WANT A HUG!”

We all know how it turned out. I’m not sad, and I’m not excited. There was nothing to be sad or excited about. You all know my stance. The truth is this guy probably isn’t going to send our country into a tailspin into oblivion. Neither was McCain. The one thing Barack Obama likely has that we need and McCain probably didn’t have is better diplomacy. The world is pissed at us and we need someone to appease them and convince them to not blow us up. Other than that, nothing’s really going to change.

It’s my problem that I’m dealing with. Libertarians have different standards and different concerns and we want different things than everyone else. We ask different questions. Things are set up at the moment in such a way that it’s not so invasive so people can live with it. We’re always going to be irked, because to us, things have can be and have been so much better.

Did I mention today was Wednesday? Thats 3 more days until Saturday and RENFEST!!! SHIT YEAH! This is what I’ve been looking forward to for the past several weeks.  I’m counting down the days. We leave Friday morning and we’re taking my friend Annie with us, which is going to be awesome because she lives in Washington now and I miss her. I’m beginning to ramble now. The excitement is getting to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was all good fun

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I thought I would write a detailed post about the things that have gone on in the land of Janette. I’ve noticed the amount of short, impersonal blogs about topics such as politics, news, and literature, my husband, but not so much about how I’ve been doing. I understand how that saddens my readers (both of them. Shout out!), I really do. You mustn’t worry. I’m here to rectify the situation.

First off, regarding the last post, after Vance reviewed the answers he gave me a grade of A-. Apparently if he had to buy a sandwich, it would be the aforementioned chicken sandwich, but if he had to make one it would be grilled cheese. I forgot his love of cheese. Also, it’s most likely irish, not scottish, that his german blood is mixed with. But I did get his shoe size right!

 Halloween was a lot of fun. I didn’t take any pictures, which I apologize for. Even if I had it’s not like anyone would have been able to see them. My flickr account is full, and I am unable to purchase any additional space at the moment. Anyway, Deven, as you can see pictured above (taken on the 25th) looked freakin adorable. I don’t think he was crazy about the heat or the itchy fabric, but he faired pretty well. We invited Jackie, Yalena, and Garrett to trick or treat with us and I’m glad we did. They currently live in a neighborhood populated by mostly old people who probably hit the sheets at around dusk. Our neighborhood was full of kids and the houses were fully prepared for the flood.

I was dressed as a witch. I didn’t take any pictures, and I’m kind of sad that I didn’t. Maybe later I’ll put it on again and take pictures, just so everyone gets the idea of how into this I get. Luckily I wasn’t the only parent dressed up. The guy who lives next door dressed up as what I would guess was Bob Marley. He had a Rastafarian dread lock wig on his head and he was carrying a guitar and he had this little speaker strapped to his belt that was playing a guitar riff that he didn’t stop simulating all night. It was awesome. Having kids is the ultimate excuse to dress up on Halloween and go trick or treating. Especially if you never get invited to parties.

Yalena was dressed as an OU cheerleader, which is risky when you’re in the Austin-area, but she was still adorable enough to be a hit. She’s so cute! She’s getting so tall, and she’s talks a lot. She picks up random toys off the floor and puts them to her ear and talks into them like a phone. It’s hilarious. Pretty soon Jackie’s going to need to get her a real cell phone.

Anyway, we cleaned up. We got more candy than I was expecting, and probably more than I can eat. Vance ran out of candy pretty quickly. I had heard of a lot of horror stories about there not being very many trick or treaters in some neighborhoods. I just hope parents aren’t becoming paranoid and robbing their kids of this awesome holiday for reasons other than religious misinterpretation. Think of your kids! They have to wear uniforms to school, their moms still rub spit on their cheeks after they eat, their being robbed additives such as corn syrup and preservatives,  the least they can do is allow them one night to cut loose, wear whatever they want, and beg strangers for candy, even if they can’t eat it afterwards. It’s a part of a healthy childhood.

Deven did alright. He refused to walk in his costume, but he was alright being carried by Garrett. He passed out on our way home in his stroller. Apparently the excitement was just a little more than he could handle on only one nap.

He’s been a bit of trouble lately. He’s been teething the last week and has been really needy. Ill be sitting on the couch and he’ll come up to me whine to be picked up. He will literally grab onto my knees and try to climb me. It’s cute that he desires to be cuddled sometimes, but it never lasts long. He usually wants to be able to crawl around on the couch and grab things off of the coffee table, and then I have to put him back on the floor, which only makes him whine and fuss more.

This also applies to bed time. I haven’t had a good night sleep in a couple of weeks. I put him in his crib at bed time and he screams, lets out the most pitiful cry, flops onto the mattress like you just pulled the rug out from under him, and he does this until I give in and put him in my bed. After he falls asleep I put him back in the crib and go to bed myself, but a couple of hours later he wakes up and I give in, letting him sleep with me the rest of the night. I need and adore my sleep, even if it means spoiling my kid and making my husband sleep downstairs.

It’s so funny because when he first started doing this I at least tried to not give in. I would make him cry for a little while before I got out of bed, but after a while I just wanted to sleep. So now he just lets out a little whine, I get up from my bed and he is sitting there with his arms out ready for me to pick him up. The little shit.

But he is still cute. His newgame since fully learning to walk is picking something up and carrying it around the room. On Halloween night we emptied the candy bucket and let him play with it and he was just walking back and forth from the tv to the kitchen with his bucket, occassionally plopping down for a minute to investigate either the bucket or another toy on the floor. He looks like he is on some sort of mission when he is engaged in this activity. I need to get video of it.

What else? He’s been really vocal, but no words yet aside from “mama”. His favorite game is when I get on all fours and pretend to chase him. He screams and scurries off into a corner of the play area, laughing hysterically and I approach him. He also likes to hand people things, like literally take your hand, position it,  put something in it, and wait for your reaction before he takes it back and does it again. And lastly, he has figured out the switch settings on his electronic toys. On his play table he likes to put the switch on the music only setting and play with it. I will go over to it and put in on another less annoying setting and he will switch it back to the music setting. And on the learning setting there is one button that you have to push three times to get it to play a certain stupid song, and he will hit the button the three times required to hear the song and then stop. Sometimes he’ll even dance, which is rocking from side to side. He’s a smart, smart boy.

As for me, I’ve just been doing my housework and reading Atlas Shrugged which I swear feels like I will never finish. Unlike other ridiculously long books, this one at least has a story that is continuing to be interesting. But seriously, after this book is done I may not want to read anything for a long, long time.

I’ve been in need of a good exercise regime. I gained weight, which happens after babies are born if you’re not careful. I haven’t exploded, but I have gained a bit of a belly, and I’m just in general too soft for my liking. I do need to eat better, which is hard around this time of year,but I would also really like to find something that’s not too intense to do at least 4 times a week, if not everyday, to try to tone up a bit. I started doing yoga before bed time, because gaining flexibility is not hard for me, and I would like to start walking Deven to the park everyday, but I am not sure it would be enough. If only we afford weight sets.

I’m not sure how I would fair if I put myself on a diet. Vance has been begging me to prepare better meals for him (because he can’t do it HIMSELF) and I believe I would probably benefit from it as well. I’ve never had to diet before. I’ve been really skinny to skinny enough my entire life, and I’ve never been concerned with my weight even when I wasn’t that skinny. I’m afraid that if I restrict my diet and *gulp* remove soda I won’t last, I’ll shrivel away under the bed like a missing contact lense.

And lastly is anyone excited that after Tuesday the election will be over??? I am. I know who I am voting for, and hopefully you either do or don’t plan on voting. As for the outcome, I am certain to the degree of 90%, that unless something awful comes up, like it turns out that Obama has been dead for months and it turns out all along it’s been Hilary Clinton in blackface and tailored (mens) suits, that Barack Obama will be our next president. What does that mean for our country? I’m going to sum it up in one surprisingly tame sentence: Business as usual. Don’t expect any real change, unless your entire interpretation of politics revolves around the right to abortion, gay marriage, and how much corporations pay in taxes. If that’s the case, then you’re an idiot. I said it.

I’m sorry to leave this on that note, but I must make a run to the art store and then get some groceries. Until next time…

EDIT I sought after and uploaded a new theme! I know, I didn’t make it myself, and someday I just might. I don’t have time with everything else I do to sit down and create a new theme. But for the time being, I hope this one is pleasing to the eye.