porchitational sitcheration

We're in the midst of a loooong week here, and Ro is blissfully (and filthily) asleep, having crashed out way way early on an evening stroll. Of course, he went to bed without having much in the way of an evening meal (except for about two mini loaves of pumpkin bread, which he calls bop and inexplicably devours at every opportunity). He is also, as mentioned previously, utterly filty, having taken a faceplant at the park earlier.

We have been taking full advantage of the beautiful 90 degree weather as of late. Okay, so that's a lie--I have seen a lot of fluorescently-lit cubeage this past week and Merc has logged more library time than the librarians themselves, but we have been enjoying the gloriousness nonetheless. How can you not enjoy a front porch scene like this one? They look fake, but I swear they're not concrete gargoyles--they're awaiting a wormy treat from mum.On the flipside, pollen season is in full effect. I hosed down said porch a couple days ago and it is green again. The cars are green. The cats are pollen-coated. Ro is runny-nosed and perpetually dusted with pollen (among other things). Plus the house is in need of some major repairage--an ill-pitched gutter has wrought roofing destruction. Ro, as always, is up to all kinds of rasciality. Most of his words fall into one of several categories: animals and their respective noises, items of clothing, and abstract concepts. He is pretty adept at using hi and bye properly.
However, he is not quite so adept at giving kisses that do not hurt. We're workin on it.

local tiger is NOT playin

This man is out of his backwards-facing infant seat and into a forward-facing kid seat for babies. Also, it is now, like 90 here in the Souf, so R is currently wearing far fewer clothes than pictured....to be exact, he'd wearing a green American Apparel wifebeater and socks. That is all. It's almost tubby time, and the buns are free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the Science Center today and saw a zoo and a petting zoo, so we saw tigers and meerkats and petted some goats and sheep. Actually, I kind of had a little, let's say, run-in with the tiger. He was pacing around, sniffing, and making a face like he was concentrating really hard. I was saying things like, "Wow! Meow!" I looked at L and pointed at the tiger as if to say "This guy! This guy!" When I turned back, I saw the tiger's, let's say, heiney (sp?). I was then sprayed with a well-aimed jet of glandular fluids and secretions that fell like a summer shower over my perfectly coiffed hairdo. I was, like so many adolescents who think that they're invincible, in a tiger's "spray-zone" (i.e. highway to the dangerzone) and I got got. Eep.

Well, I can hear R winding down (code word for "yelling") in the next room.

Here's an beginning-of-spring shot of R and I. The appearance and disappearance of the tape was pretty amazing to him.

Our garden (courtesy of Ye-Ye and Aunt Han) is starting to come up. R tries to crawl into the planter boxes, and loves watering.






R: Yes, of course I'll lie here peacefully and let you change my heavy-wetty diaper with no complaint, impatience, distraction, irrational hollering or abject writhing. Of course. I always do.

Mama: Thank you, baby. You're being so cooperative.

R: Like I said, there is no reason for you to expect anything different from me, as you are, of course, aware of the proceedings of nearly all previous lifetime diaper changes and have personal knowledge of, well I would guess, at least 50--let's call it 50% of previous changes. Thus, you have little reason to expect something less than nearly "smooth sailing."

Mama: You're being sooooo good. Let's just finish this up. Haaaang in there. Goooooooood.

R: Well, frankly it's starting to agitate me that you're acting as if I never ever sit still long enough for a diaper change...as if there was a single three-day period in which I lay still (and then only because Asha showed me how to be cooperative). That's the kind of thing that makes me want to thrash around! You know what? You know what! I DON'T THINK I CAN SIT--

Mama: All done.

R: Oh, great. You seen the blocks? Smell you later.

Mama: Wheew!

har-har-holiday

We S-Bs spent Easter up on the mountain with my folks, GG, and GreatUncle J and GreatAunt L (who R was meeting for the first time!).

You can see a big dog at the right...R now imitates both DOGS and DUCKS: ooh-ooh-ooh (woof-woof-woof) and ack-ack-ack (quack-quack-quack). He went to a playgroup with his daycare provider Ms. B a week or so ago, and there was a tiny toy-something puppy-dog, just his size. He must have breathed a sigh of relief after so many fun (but big) dogs in his life!

As evidenced by the photo, there were plenty of eggs to dye and hunt. Speaking of the "dyer's hand," today is (for a few more minutes) Shakespeare's 445th bday.

...By the way, I just rediscovered why I never post. I spent millions of minutes uploading pix that are now gone. As you see, there is just one lousy photo here. I swear, there were five the last time I looked.

To reference my most recent post: ^&%^@##$^%$&^&))&%*^*(^&^%^&!!!!,...

in blogging one day you are in, the next day you are out

well, I can't find the g*d* camera, so we are without fresh pictures yet again...an old one for the memories...but speaking of &*#%$, it seems that we in the pillowfort now need to watch our cussin'. the other weekend, at a friend's *%&$ bday party in #@$@@ raleigh, mama's ears perked up from a rollicking conversation to hear rowan stomping around saying "s***!" "s***!" of course, everything he says seems to be punctuated with an exclamation point.

I'm going to be reading poetry at a Starbucks tonight. The last time I did a reading, R was about 7 weeks old, but blissfully asleep in a loud club. I doubt there will be that kind of peace this time. he'll probably make lots of new friends and try to steal upside-down-nonfat-caramel-macchiatos.

my semester ends in about two weeks, at which point L will be blasting "School's Out for Summer" at top volume, since at that point she can stop hearing about academic prose!

back by sam demand

So what's up? Ro turns one and the pillow fort gets disassembled? There's really too much to cover to make an easy transition back into the blogosphere, so I just figured I'd do a quickie post to break the seal.

For this inaugural post, I'm going to break from all things baby-related to get a little political. North Carolina teens have, for the past decade-ish, received abstinence-only sexuality education--that is, sex ed that teaches that abstinence until marriage is the expected standard of behavior, period. Condoms are discussed in terms of failure rates. Other birth control? Forget about it. 'Cause we all know, despite the fact that the average age of marriage in this nation is in the mid-twenties for women and the upper twenties for men, and some groups are denied access to legal marriage, and the average age of sexual debut (to put it in sex research terms--sounds so debutante-y) is 16 for boys and 17 for girls, it's totally realistic to expect every single teen out there to wait.

Cut to the Healthy Youth Act--now appearing in the NC House of Reps. In a nutshell, it gives parents license to choose the type of sex ed their kids receive: abstinence-based or abstinence only. Here it is in its entirety: http://ncleg.net/Sessions/2009/Bills/House/PDF/H88v4.pdf . Giving parents options about the info their kids are exposed to (or not)? Great! But every time this bill hits the house it keeps getting watered down. And okay, I need to head back to middle school civics class--I don't really remember how the system of readings and votes on a bill works. But at this point the Healthy Youth Act has been through so many changes that its original intent and mission has been altered! It may seem like insignificant little changes in wording, but this latest iteration is the weakest yet.

I think I need to go watch me some Schoolhouse Rock now--didn't they have a song about billz gettin passed?

Anyhow, just had to get the blog chops back.

More later!