I was spending more than five minutes trying to figure out a good title for this post, and instead of saying, "Catchup" or "Update" as I usually do, I might as well just do without.
There's a lot to mention, and of course as I sit here in my sexy boxers in the dark, none of it is coming to mind. Maybe if I take my shorts off...
Well, for starters, I was just scanning through an old video that my high school buddy sent me, and it's a video from my old video camera, before the days of digital, on the old 8mm, back in 1997, and it's amazing to see how skinny I used to be. I'm not that chubby now, but I had a chin back then. And for some odd reason, my hair was unattractively big. Gelled big and blowdried up. Really odd. Makes me wanna revisit a lot of the old footage now because I like having a sense of who I used to be. Seems like that gives me perspective to who I am now. One things for sure, even back then when I was just 21, I was still making bad jokes at other people's expense. There's a shot I took of Jay's fridge, at a jar of pickles with only one or two pickles floating around in it - to which I said:
"Oh, I didn't know yours was detachable."
Some things change, and some things get worse over time.
Instead of telling you about our new TV (the old one fizzled out) or our shopping spree for new clothes (three people, three hundred bucks, new undies for everyone!), I'll spend some time talking about the babies. What do you think, this is a baby blog or something?
My mom seemed to enjoy herself out here, getting a better sense of what kind of frustration I go through when the boy decides to throw a tantrum over the sky being blue, or water being wet. But she also imparted some obvious knowledge onto me, like, "Don't be so upset at him." Which is true, but sometimes it's a toughie to hold back. I got really upset today when he clobbered me with a toy helicopter which cut the inside of my lip, and again when he tried to pull away from my when I held his hand to go down the stairs. Reason is he was pulling away toward the direction down the stairs, and I don't want him getting hurt because he can't listen.
It was nice having another adult in the house though, seems like there's more freedom for the adults to do extraordinary duties like going to the bathroom, or grabbing some lunch before 2pm. The kids also enjoyed Grandma, Zoe shrieking up a storm and Alex performing his tricks. I actually was really bummed seeing her leave because it was such a refreshing break from 24/7 babyland.
So Zoe's learned a few things since the last post. She's finally learned to eat her cereal without massive amounts of screaming and spitting. In fact, the way she approaches eating now is to open her mouth, take a bite, and then her lips are inside her mouth as she works the food around. Then when she's done, her mouth pops open again. It's cuter than it sounds, just add saucer eyes and crazy hair to your imagination, and you're close.
She's also getting a tooth in, but she hasn't really objected much about it yet. She's still working on sitting up, and she has the red spots on her head to prove it! And for some reason, she's still spitting up here and there. The other night at Walmart, she had gobs of it all over the floor. My wife dutifully worked it into the cement floor with her shoe, but really just spread it around some more.
As for Alex, we're learning a few tricks to curb the tantrums (TV stays off, more attention, more small meals a day, a shot of Jack Daniels in his milk everyday, and selling our souls to the devil repeatedly) but they're still there. He does however, comprehend when we're disapproving, and when we're mad. When we're disapproving, he'll cry and get dramatic - but when we're mad, he actually has no idea how to react. He'll look at us quietly, and try to sidestep the issue. Don't worry, we don't get mad that often, only when we're really stressed or just got our inner lip cut by a toy helicopter.
When my mom and I were at Costco, I got a hotdog and had Alex on my lap, thinking that it'll be easier to feed him. He wasn't particularly interested in the hotdog, but he did pick up a piece, dip it in the ketchup/relish/onion mess I had on the wrapper, and then put it to his mouth. The other day at Olive Garden, I dipped his breadsticks in my soup before giving it to him, to give it some flavor, and when he did the same thing, dipping his bread in my soup. Half the time he was just going through the motions and not really polluting my soup, but it was still adorable. Not so adorable was the fact that Olive Garden charges $4.95 for Mac and Cheese for the kids menu.
The other night was also his debut as a comedian. He somehow got into this act whereby he'd make a face - which is to open his eyes wide with eyebrows raised, and bare his teeth notsomuch in a scary way but more so in a I-just-sat-on-a-stick way - and he'd get a laugh out of us, especially my wife. He repeated it too, which made it funnier because he'd do it, squat down to reset his face, and then pop up with that face again. He even ran to the sliding glass door where he often fulfills his budding narcissistic tendencies, made the face, and laughed at himself. Such a ham.
There's plenty more to report, but really it's better when I do it when it's fresh in the mind. I'm such a bad blogger. Better than most, I suppose. I feel my vocabulary shrinking. Rather, I think my mind is replacing complex sentences and big words with things like, "Hot Potato, hot potato..." from the Wiggles. And "Play with Me, Sesame..." And "No, Alex." That I say a lot.
