10.20.2008

who's posting?! who!??



well, i realize i'm basically only an honorary kitten now--liz busted me down to private, i've lost my stripes, there's no room in the pillow fort for me--a non-blogging roustabout barnacle who couldn't upload a picture to save his screen-name!!!!

oh well, it should be evident to viewers that i've become a heinous caricature of the typical english graduate student. right now it's "fall break" and i'm the only person in shouting distance of the teaching assistant office without a floor-polisher or a mop. However, I do try to occasionally play hide-&-seek behind ro's highchair.
Here's R looking like Jack Nicholson. You can see the bags under the poor guy's eyes. This morning he was ready to rawk at 5:30, and by the time I put him in his car seat, he was wiped.


He's got two little corn-kernel sized teeth now, and we think he's about the cut the top two teeth as well. It's going to be weird to see the little guy with teeth...but I guess Halloween is a good time to get some fangs.
















Here's a real kitten, laying seige to an imaginary pillow fort.

And here's what I'll be going for as a Halloween zombie! The son has taught the father!!!!


10.19.2008




Mercer's computer is pretty ornery about moving pix around in Blogger, so they'll remain tacked to the heading of the page, sans explanations.

The S-B family just returned from a pumpkin-carving party. It was pretty cool--there was chili to be had, pumpkin carving apparati to be conquered, ex-neighbors to reminisce with. I for one am coasting along on a major sugar high, fueled by the deadly trifecta of candy corn, cupcakes, and brownies. Merc was more tempted by the mummies (hot dogs wrapped in croissant dough). I'm pretty sure we all exceeded our daily allowance of garbage. I let Ro try a tiny bite of chili--big mistake. He spent the rest of the time lunging and whining. I'm pretty sure he is my id, all spiffed up in cuteness.
So yup, we have pretty much abandoned the uber-careful, administer new foods one at a time and wait and see if they cause any untoward reactions. We have kinda relented and let him guide the process now--within reason.
In other news, Ro has decided not to sleep, really. And when Ro ain't sleeping, nobody's sleeping. I think it may be a combo of teething and a new daycare, but it has been a little tough.
We're all swept up in Halloween frenzy over here. Our neighborhood is home to swarms of young'uns, so we're prepping for trick-or-treaters already (and by that I mean have purchased drawerfuls of candy that will likely experience major depletion before the first grubby paw raps on the door on Halloween night). There's also gonna be a carnival down the block, complete with a haunted trail that'll wind through the park next door. I volunteered Mercer to be a zombie.
I am going to take this rare naptime oppertunity to (grudgingly) attempt to mop the crusted squash and cereal off the kitchen floor. More later!

10.16.2008

pretty good

So yeah, it was a pretty good week. Ro is teething something fierce, which has caused him to get up to all kinds of shenanigans, shenanigans like waking up at 3am thinking it is time for fun and play. He crashed a few minutes ago, but I already hear cranky stirrings emanating from his direction. Uh-oh. Mercer and I are seriously sleep deprived, and Ro goes about his day looking like he's wearing eyeliner he's so sleepy.

This was also Ro's first week in his new daycare. The arrangement seems to be working out well so far. His new provider has a three year old daughter, who has really taken to Ro (and I think the feeling is mutual. He loves pulling her hair.). It's kind of a downer that their first week together has been marred by the specter of budding teeth-induced crankiness, but she seems to have taken it in stride.

For my part, I am waiting on Mercer to come home from class so we can eat slash updating my music collection for the first time in a long, long time. I am not too hip to what the kids are listening to these days (though there is some pretty good college radio in GSO), so I just downloaded some albums from bands I liked back in the day. After all that music-procurin' I am too sleepy to download pictures as well, but more are in the works.

And I don't know about y'all but my obsession with the news has gotten a tad bit unhealthy. It's time for this election to go ahead and be over. NC has early voting, so I'll probably hit the polls before too long.

PS: T, you oughta go see GirlTalk: Urbana, 11.5!

10.06.2008

housemold

Coming atcha live from the S-B household. Mercer, who has dropped off the face of planet blogosphere, is diligently underlining stuff. He's reading a section called . . . ummm . . . "Vygotsky, Tutoring, and Learning." Since I don't have much to say about that, I'll move along to a status report on other residents of this abode.

In the world of kittens, you're either in . . . or you're out. Earlier, Lemmy was in, which meant that Audie was out. Right now, Audie is in, so that means Lemmy is out. This whole paragraph won't make much sense if you have never seen Project Runway. It probably doesn't make much sense if you have, either. But the kittens have been enjoying a little newfound freedom as we have let them wander outside a little more. In part, we felt safer doing this due to a larger yard and microchipping technology . . . and we just got tired of policing the door and chasing them down, only to get scratched whilst carting them back in.
Que mas, you ask? Well, Ro is officially seven months old today. He marked the occasion by cutting his first tooth! Two pearly swellings have been visible just below the gumline for weeks, and one has finally busted out. I'm trying to introduce him to other foods in an attempt to find one he like as much as pickles. I know all that salt can't be good for him--he just really loves 'em!
Rowan has been sleeping better at night, taking more regular naps during the day (well, sometimes). A pal from the hood told me her baby is doing well on the 2-3-4 schedule (two hours between waking and first nap, three hours between waking from first nap and second nap, four hours between waking from second nap and bedtime). I have been absorbing lots of guidance from across the world from my friend Taisuke and his adorable family!

I worked a twelve hour day today, and the weekend seems like a distant memory. I never get over feeling sad when I leave in the morning. I suppose by the time he's 11 or so, I will have gotten over it (he'll be screaming at me about how lame I am because I won't buy Fruity Frosted Sugar Bombs for breakfast). In any case, starting work at 7 is rough, but having Friday off is totally worth it. Oh! And we (hopefully, fingers crossed) seem to have found a new daycare situation for Ro.

Some household stuff:
That rad lamp my mama and bro made from an old oil drum (thanx for the correction, T).
The hawsometron sewing table Grandpa B made (I bought some new fabric for a project--hopefully I'll be able to use it soon!).And this behemoth is the subtle, tasteful litter box screen I made for the cats' waste area (the litter box and its accouterments inspire endless fascination from Ro. I have had to intercept many a mission). Yeah, we couldn't find olive green or even cameo-colored tarps. It looks like a traffic cone threw up. Actually, on second thought, it kinda resembles a giant play fort (Mercer: "Wow, that new box looks really fun. I wish I could use the bathroom in there."). Uh-oh.

10.02.2008

rowan picked a peck of pickled pickles

Tonight's menu featured sweet potatoes, acorn squash, rice cereal, and pickles. Ahhh, the pickles. Much footage was taken. Excuse the cripplingly depressing NPR footage in the background (why can't anything good happen to Haiti?).
Okay, time to hunker down with my frozen pizza and focus on the VP debates. Yes, frozen pizza. Politics. Alone. Sad combo. At lease Gwen Ifill rulez!