Great News!

I totally forgot to announce my exciting news, I'm attending graduate school in the fall! I've been accepted to the University of Central Arkansas to begin my MA in history. I'm very happy to be getting back into school. As much as I love being home with my kids, going back to school to get my masters degree will be good for all of us. A history degree will give me a lot of options for my future career and I will love my studies. I know that the next couple of years will be a challenge but it will be worth it in the end. Now I'm just waiting to hear about an assistantship and we can start making plans.

Time Flies

I can't believe that February is almost over, Jack will be 2 1/2 in a few days and Belle will be 8 months next week. Jack's verbal skills are astounding me and Belle is getting more mobile every day. I am grateful that Jack still really loves his little sister and Belle absolutely adores her big brother. I really hope that their relationship stays close as they get older. I'm really enjoying seeing how different they are as children, both in development and in personality.


Belle is much more verbal than Jack was at this age. She's more outgoing and flirty than he was as well. As far as how they became mobile, Jack liked to roll from place to place while Belle prefers to practice downward dog and drag herself around in a military crawl. She can get across the room really fast! Belle is trying really hard to blow raspberries and makes all sorts of strange noises which has prompted Jack to say that she sounds like a bulldozer. It cracks me up every time! We're excited for Belle to turn 8 months so we can introduce her to new foods and finally introduce her to spices.


Jack is still obsessed with dinosaurs and can identify T-Rex, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops and Stegosaurus. He can actually say the word paleontologist but I'm not sure that he understand what it is. Jack is terribly funny to me, in addition to calling Belle a bulldozer (which I'm not sure she'll appreciate later in life) he likes to point to his head and say "idea" which is usually followed by "need scissors" or "need flashlight." He has a great memory and often looks up at me and says "something missing" which he will follow up with the missing items. At mealtime, he occasionally decides that he doesn't like his food stating that it's "too yucky."

Jack is definitely in the "gimme" phase which is not cute, we're working hard to teach him to say "may I please." It's not working yet but we're being persistent. He'll also say that needs something as in "I need chips" or "I need chocolate" which are most certainly not needs. Jack has also decided that he is Mickey Mouse, I am Minnie, Belle is Daisy and Bruce is Goofy. It has not escaped him that we are missing Donald and Pluto. Jack is very active, he loves to jump and dance and says that he has "happy feet." He has also become very particular about music, if he doesn't like the genre being played he will tell us to change it until he is satisfied. At least he has an opinion.

Another evening I was taking pictures of the kids and I started calling Belle a ham (because she is). Jack was very insistent that she wasn't a ham she is a baby. A little later I called her a ham again and he said "no, no, no, juicy steak." Last night as I put him to bed I told him that I'd see him in the morning, I usually say "but not too early" as he's been getting Bruce up between 6:00 - 6:30 am. As I finished saying "I'll see you in the morning" he said "not too early." He really slays me. He also got up around 5:00 am so obviously my request for sleep is not working. I guess that we should be glad that he's not waking us up with his dinosaurs in tow saying "dinosaur... roar. DINOSAUR...ROAR!!!"

Hello all, it's about time I jumped on this and contributed from the paternal side. Sandy's got the developmental news and color commentary pretty well documented; so I'll fill in the Op-Ed.

Where did un-educational cartoons go? I don't deny that I harbor a desire that the kids experience many of the same childhood experiences I fondly (though fuzzily) remember. One of these came to mind this morning. I'm usually the parent to get up with early-rising Jack in the morning. Lately this has involved a 5:30-6am "Daddy up" nudge; though this morning revallie was at a somewhat more merciful 6:45am.

Well, I can muster enough of my faculties to accomplish the routine diaper change/first-round breakfast logistics and settle in for some "toons" (Jack's colloquialism) while my ganglia warms up. And these "toons", dear friends and family, are not the toons of my youth... thus my point.

What the bloody hell happened to the pointless, violent, politically-incorrect cartoons of kinder-past? I certainly appreciate the educational value of current DisneyChan, Noggin and PBS kid programming... good stuff being imparted; all carefully, psychosocially massaged to imprint constructive civic behaviors and interpersonal skills. I believe these toons are indeed a valid teaching adjunct to what Sandy and I do.... but, at the same time, I wonder if Jack and Belle wouldn't also benefit from an occasional helping of the schadenfreude-centered, slapstick in the Coyote v. Roadrunner series; or the thinly veiled anti-communist dogma undergirding Rocky and Bullwinkle; or the burlesque absurdism of George of the Jungle and Mr. Magoo. No, these shows don't teach the value of bi-linguality and communal-effort; and yes they surely present a coarse, low-comic tone.... but I suspect these old-school toons still have value... if only to counter-balance the somewhat Stepfordian-flavor of the current slate.

That, and it is still damn-funny when that anvil drops on the Coyote's head.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

Toddlers are very entertaining as they learn new words and concepts every day. Recently Jack has been pointing to Belle and saying "Princess, Princess Belle" which is very sweet. The other day I asked him "if Belle is a Princess what are you?" He replied "I King." He likes to go around saying "I King, I King." We've also been motivating him to communicate his need to have his diaper changed with coins to put in his bank, it seems to be working so far. He loves to put a "poin" (his pronunciation for a coin) into his bank and then shake it to see how many "poins" he has saved. When he wants my full attention and I'm taking care of Belle he tells me "Belle down" or "Belle saucer" which is his way of telling me that he wants me to put his sister in the exersaucer. Jack is also well into the "me do it" phase, it seemed to start when he wanted to take his own temperature when he was sick and he loves to fill up sippy cups with water from the refrigerator. I've begun to have him help me bake, I sit him on the counter and let him pour in the ingredients, which he absolutely loves; he always says "me do it."

Poor Little Jack

Jack has been quite sick off and on for the last few weeks. Today we took him in to see the doctor after having a record temperature of 104 degrees last night. I got the fever down around 10:30 pm and he slept through the night. It's clear that he had an infection of some kind. The doctor had his blood count analysed and he has an undefined infection and they've changed his medication. He didn't have a fever tonight and he was actually bouncing around before bed so we're hoping that we're finally going to knock the bug out of our little boy. It's been so hard watching our normally healthy, energetic boy wanting to do nothing but lay on the sofa, snuggle and watch movies. I hope that we're going to see him back to normal very soon and for more than a week or two.