Rolling, rolling, rolling

Last week I discovered Alexander waking up from his nap looking like this:

Aside from the fact that he is now a very proficient thumb sucker, notice the feet tucked up under him. He has been scooting around the crib for about 2 weeks now, and I was impressed with how far under him he was getting his legs.

Fast forward to this morning, when hear him and go to get him, I find this:

Well, would you look at that. My tummy-sleeper can roll over now. Oh joy, changing table tie-downs, here we come!


In other news, in spite of the fact that we don't have room, we became desperate enough to want a swing. Grandma found one at a thrift store and brought it to us today. We have already put it to good use.

Mom, I found....

"Mom, I found a really cool lizard! Come look!"

Christopher had come running inside and said that. I figured that he found a lizard and it would be gone by the time I showed up. But like a good mommy I followed him outside to look. He points to a brick and says "Right there." I look and see nothing. Obviously I was right and it ran off. "I don't see it honey." "Right there!" He points firmly at the dirt by the brick. I lean down closer and, lo and behold, a baby horny toad! He asked if he could catch it, and I said "Sure." I figure it'll run. Nope, he reaches down, picks it up, and beams a huge triumphant smile.

We take it inside and find it a box, and I suggest he put some leaves in it. Christopher goes outside to get some greenery. He winds up with a caterpillar cocoon. What a day! After a while I realize I should feed the lizard. I remembered that I had an "ant catcher" that Uncle John gave me years ago. I'd never used it before. But it worked awesomely. And after I forced Christopher to not poke the lizard for an hour, he got a nice meal down.

Long story short, Christopher loved the lizard for a few days, and this afternoon we took it to his favorite park and let it go "so he can find a nice houe and a wife." <- Life according to Christopher. Because we all know that everything needs homes, families, and a spouse. Right?

Cute huh?

P.S. A while ago when I was helping Christopher make home-made bows and arrows, we found a praying mantists egg sac. It got put in a jar, and Bryan recently noticed it had hatched. We actually got Christopher out of bed to see it and let them go that night. He had a lot of fun, and even held one. I also saw one of them on our porch this week.

Scary!

So, I already griped about how much I don't like the neighbors, for vaild reasons. After I threw a hissy fit about, things quieted down and I didn't hear anyone or anything for a while. Well, now it's worse. Before I was worried about what could be happening or would happen. And then it happened.

On Monday and Tuesday night, in the middle of the night (after midnight) I heard someone outside the front door and they wiggled the doorknob. It was safely locked, and Bryan was of course home, so as much as that's creepy, I didn't flip out about it. The guy next door has creepy friends and I figured that it was them. Which isn't good, I know I know, but if my door is locked and I'm home, they're not going to be stealing my stuff for drug money today.

On Tuesday night after the door jiggle, I heard someone walking in the driveway. Then around 1 I heard a car roll up the driveway. It sounded odd because everyone who lives here screams up the driveway, slams into park, and goes inside. This time there were no headlights on, and the car was going so slow I couldn't hear anything except the tires rolling over the dirt. Then people went into the adjoining unit. And then all .... broke loose. Things crashing, breaking, banging. The floor and walls shook. And I was scared to death.

There's been too much noise in there since they moved in, so while this was scary, I assumed that maybe someone had a bad day and was having a tantrum. At one point it was so over-the-top that I thought about waking Bryan up and telling him to go over and see if something was wrong or if they could quiet down. But I realized that if they were drunk enough to be trashing the house, I didn't want him over there. So I let it be. But I was awake now, and scared about if something came through the wall, or if there would be any other sort of overflow of trouble.

I heard girls voices for a minute, and then nothing. Then the dog that lives there started whining, and I thought "Wow, something must be wrong if someone's picking on the dog." Yes, it crossed my mind to call the police, but I've called them twice already, and the landlord knows what's been going on, so I figured that if they were going to still be bad neighbors after all that, I'd just call in the morning. A little bit later I smelled something so strong it was almost sweet, and when Bryan asked me to explain it to him later, I said I wasn't sure what it was, but it smelled like chemicals.

Interestingly enough, I never heard a car leave. Around 3 someone walked up the driveway, went inside the house, and then there was more noise. This time it sounded like someone cleaning up. There was also a lot of noise in the back yard too, which made me quite thankful that Onyx was inside.

Then there was quiet until about 4, at which point the too-loud, shake-the-walls music came on. At 5, I heard more than one person, but no voices, and someone started hammering the wall. That woke Bryan up, and I'm surprised that it didn't wake both children. Bryan came out and found me sitting in his chair with a book, chewing my nails. I was so freaked out that I'd chewed them all off, in addition to not being able to sleep. Bryan tried to snuggle me and comfort me, but it took over an hour for me to calm down enough to sleep, because I would start at every sound.

Later that day someone came pounding on the door. It was the young man's sister. She told me a lot of stuff that I didn't appreciate hearing but probably should have known before. Like that there was drug dealing going on over there before, someone had in fact broken into that house last night and destroyed everything, the smell I noticed was the bleach they soaked the entire house in, and that there were some people who were mad about that house no longer being "the party house" who apparently came by to pay the neighbor guy back for it. She also said that there were people they had restraining orders against who shouldn't have been around there, and I've seen those people there before.

Pleasant, huh?

So I'm not sure what we're going to do now. Obviously, we keep the door locked, and we try to keep someone home to basically babysit the house. The back neighbors whom we like and trust are both moving out, one next week. When they both leave, we'll be here with only very very bad neighbors who don't like us. We'd like to just get out too, but we're really not sure anyone would let us move in since Bryan has no job. Not really a fun situation. But I also don't feel prompted that we should get out now. So I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm sure in hindsight it will be obvious what The Plan was. Just like not being able to get a house last year.

So just say an extra prayer for us. We'll keep everyone updated on when Bryan gets a job and we get out of here. One a happy note, I've been looking around at other housing, and I've seen several stand-alone houses for the same rent as we're paying now. When we do get out, I have good hopes we'll find a good place.

A few extra pictures

4 days old

2 weeks old

4 weeks old

7 weeks old

9 weeks old

New pictures

Alexander was just chilling in his chair this evening, and I was thinking how he looks so much older and bigger every day, so I grabbed my camera to capture him as he is now. Just a few regular-everyday-nothing-special kinds of pictures.

Just hanging out here

Got a smile out of him!

Another goofy smile

All right, enough with the camera.

And it was wonderful....

Last Wednesday was Grandma Day. Grandma Day is where once a week my Grandma takes Christopher and they have a blast and spoil each other like only grandmothers and grandchildren can do.

When Grandma arrived to take Christopher, she wanted a chance to hold the baby. And it was windy outside, so I wanted to take Christopher to fly a kite. In the end, we compromised. Grandma parked herself in the most comfortable seat in my house and snuggled a warm, happy, sleepy baby, while I took Christopher and the dog to the nearest park to fly the kite. Bryan got to stay home and look for a job. Poor guy!

So Christopher and I get to the park and I realize that while I remembered the dog's collar and harness, I forgot the leash. Oh well, he's a good dog and he stays close, so we hop out anyway. We set up the kite, and that's when I realize that I forgot my camera. I even forgot my phone. Here I am, without technology to capture this great picture of my kid exuding happiness as his kite soars over the field and his dog runs circles around him. It's one of those things I think I shall remember forever when there is a windy day bursting over a grassy field.

But the simple perfection is short-lived: it's a cheap kite, and it snaps. While I'm trying to get it together again, Christopher grabs the dog by the harness and off they go! He tries to get the dog to join him on the play equipment, but Onyx isn't a fan of the idea. So Onyx winds up running around the park while Christopher plays. In the end I surrender to the fact that this kite's not going to fly properly ever again and I suggest to Christopher that we run around with the dog for a minute. He agrees to the idea, so we do. That was a short sprint though; Christopher was soon overcome with a desire to play on the slides again. And while he previously succeded in getting the dog on the equipment and down the slide only once before, he's determined to do it again. So this time I help him.

We all get up and go down one slide. Onyx was a fair sport about it, but made it known that this was NOT his favorite way to play. So I stopped making him come up and he wandered around the base while Christopher and I went down the slides a few more times. Then I called that it was time to go home. "NO, not yet! One more slide!" For the last slide, we all three went down the big tunnel tube together. Onyx hated it. I hated his claws. And Christopher loved the whole thing!

Aside from the awesomeness of watching my son fly a kite and being so happy, something really wonderful happened. Back in the summer of 2006 I was in a serious car accident, and it messed up my neck and back really badly. I've never been able to be very active since then. And something I always missed, especially at parks, was cartwheels. But lately, thanks to a great physical therapist, I've been doing absolutely fantastic, and I can do many things that I haven't done in years. So we're out in the grass, and I think, "Oh, I want to do a cartwheel!" And for the first time in 3 years, I did a cartwheel. And it was wonderful.

Eeeewwww, gross!!!

Yesterday was an "interesting" day. I got up fairly early, got myself ready, fed the baby, woke up Christopher, and we went to "Grandma Lauren's". Aka Lauren Smith, who is basically my surrogate mother when my own is far away. My siblings and I grew up with her kids, and she was with me when Christopher was born. She doesn't have any grandkids yet, so she gets claim on mine.

Anyway, we have a nice visit there. Christopher was disappointed that Johnny had built this really awesome Knex ferris wheel and there were no more good parts left. But he survived. And Alexander pulled a really mean stunt on the Smiths. I lay him down after he went to sleep, and when two of the girls came in to see him, they said with concern, "Lindy, he's got blood on his nose." Now, Alexander is getting to be a pro at thumbsucking. Basically, when he's genuinely tired, in goes the thumb and out go the lights. He hasn't got it down pat yet, but he knows there's this thing that he has control of, and he likes to suck on it when he's sleepy.

So I'm up the stairs, and I say, "It's ok, sometimes he cuts himself when he sucks his thumb, he's ok." And they look worried and say, "No, it's a lot of blood, I think you should come see it." I'm not worried, but I come down. Sure enough, he cut himself. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he did this on purpose at the Smiths just to freak them out because they hate for precious little things to get hurt. What he'd done was not just cut himself, but cut his nose, bled profusely, rubbed it all over his face and the then-being-sucked-on hand, and had it pooling on the tip of his nose. What a stinker, even if he didn't plan it! I got a rag and cleaned him up. It was really just a tiny cut, and it probably only bled like that because when he sucked his thumb his fingers were rubbing on his nose.

After a few hours I'm getting drowsy, so I decide to go home. I get home, and claiming that it's my birthday for real today, therefore I get a nap, I go to bed. I wake up 2 hours later. All is well enough..... Christopher is wearing only underwear. When I went to bed he'd been fully clothed. Alexander was asleep in his crib dressed in a new outfit with the buttons mis-buttoned. Eh, such things are the color of life.

However, later I need to get in the bathroom for something. Somehow, it had previously escaped my notice that the bathroom door was closed. That usually only happens when Christopher's been there, and done something he doesn't want me to see. So I open the door and.... sure enough. To put it politely, it's obvious that Christopher is "not feeling well" and had some associated bathroom troubles. But rather than call for help, it appeared that he did what he thought was the best thing to do, and literally "left it" at that.

I called him in and chastised him for the mess and for not asking for help when he obviously needed it. Be it right or wrong, I told him that if he can't use a toilet properly (and cleanly!) he'd have to wear a diaper until he could. He said he understood and was sorry about the mess. I cleaned up the floor and the toilet. But then I realized, why was Christopher clean??? AH! So I look around, and it dawns on me. I reach over to the bathroom towel, turn it around, and sure enough. GROSS!!!

Ironically enough, the dog mysteriously had an "accident" in Christopher's room the night before. I had cleaned it up as soon as I found it, and the pile of the laundry that he'd wet was by the back door waiting to go in the washer. So I toss the newly soiled towel and boy clothes into the pile and prepare to wash them.

About this time is when Alexander decides he absolutely MUST eat right now. So I wash up and sit down to feed him. No sooner did he finish than he throws up all over me! I foist him off on Bryan and make a dash for the shower. Boy, was that a welcome relief!

After I got out, I collected everything that in the past few hours had been ~ by various household members between 10-35 pounds ~ bled on, puked on, peed on, and pooped on, and tossed it all in the wash for a good two cycles!

Eeeeewwwww, gross!!!!!

Now, thankfully that's the end of the gross stuff, but not the end of my evening! Oh no! It's almost 10:00 now, and way past when we need to get to bed in order to wake up early to get to Phoenix for Tristan's baptism. But Christopher makes a mad dash to the bathroom, and calls for mom to help him. At least this time he made it TO the toilet and IN the toilet. I was satisfied with that. But it was becoming more apparent that he may be a bit sick. And he was starting to complain that his tummy hurt. He asked me if he could please have some chicken noodle soup. He'd eaten a good dinner, but I figure, why not? I give him soup. He ate the entire can, which is actually two cans worth when prepared. He also asked if he could add salt to it, which he's never done, and he eats this soup pretty frequently. And the whole time he's got a frown on and occasionally holding his stomach. Not good signs to the watchful mommy eye!

He finishes the soup and comes up to where I'm sitting. "Mommy, I'm cold." "Of course you're cold sweetheart, you took your clothes off. Let's get your pajamas." Bryan comments, "It sounds like someone might be running a fever." Oh, yeah. So I reach out to check, and boy do I get a shock. He IS cold! He's clammy! Well, there goes that theory. It's now official, he's been pronounced sick. Diarrhea, stomach pains, chicken noodle soup with salt cravings, and cold chills. And it's now after 11. And I thought I was going to get some sleep, HA!

I bundle him up, do his bedtime routine, and off he goes to sleep. Pity that the baby and the daddy are still awake to keep me up. Some days I think I will never get to sleep again.

So to sum up a long story, I had to do a lot of laundry yesterday. And Bryan pointed out that taking a sick child with Christopher's issues in a car, for at least four hours on the round-trip to Phoenix, was begging for bad things to happen. So we won't be able to go to Phoenix for the baptism like we all really wanted to. And since Christopher didn't sleep well last night, I forsee myself - on very little sleep - attending to a cranky, sickly child today. Sounds like fun. Actually, the extra snuggles will be nice, I just wish they came under better circumstances!

***Update*** Yes, Christopher was sick, and by the end of Saturday, so was I. In keeping with the rest of this posting: Yuck.

It's a BIRTHDAY!

Well, sorta. Kinda. In a round-about, "I've-been-here-another-365-days" kinda way.

But I enjoyed it! And that's the point, right???

We knew we'd have to wake up early on Saturday to get to Phoenix for Tristan's baptism, and I didn't want to be out and about on a Friday night, so I decided to celebrate my birthday on Thursday. Grandma said we could bring the boys over and she'd watch them both while Bryan took me out.

So come Thursday:

I wanted to sleep, in, but Mommy instincts prevented me. Foiled!

Then I got majorly puked on. Foiled again!

But! Without feeling a bit bad, I dropped the baby on Bryan and went to take a shower. I'm out of shampoo. Foiled again!

We get all ready to go to Grandma's, call to be sure she's there, and she's out. Foiled again!

She calls back soon and says she'll be there shortly, so we head out. I look at my serape and wonder if I should bring it. Naw, it's April it Tucson. Even if it is a little windy, it'll be fine. By the time we arrive at Grandma's, there's a great wind, it's overcast, and it's biting cold. Foiled again!

We settle both kids in and walk out to the car. I start it, and then I see Bryan throw off his seat belt, practically fly out of the car, and open his arms just in time to catch Christopher! Who has somehow managed to appear in front of my car, running full-speed, and crying. Apparently even though we said we were going out, he'd talked to us about our "date", and we'd already said goodbye, he didn't know we were leaving. And he seemed very concerned about whether or not we'd be back. Funny, since he spent the entire day before with Grandma, and we came back that time, and the time before that, and on this particular day he'd been talking the whole morning about daddy taking me for a "birthday date". But, he was eventually calmed and bid us goodbye. Smooth getaway: Foiled!

So we had a coupon for Sweet Tomato. I love Sweet Tomato. I can eat tons of stuff that I love, and it's good for me, and I can eat as much as I want for as long as I want. So we head over to the Sweet Tomato near Grandma's. We park near "a" door. It was the only door in sight. But upon closer inspection, it had an arrow pointing to the right, indicating that you couldn't go in that way, you had to go around. Now, in the end, we discovered that the REAL door was actually just to our left. But the arrow said right, so we had to walk all the way around before we found out how to get in. Apparently they want you to not only eat healthy but get some exercise too! Finding the restaurant without a hitch: Foiled!

We had a nice meal. Among the topics discussed were that we love being married, that I'm happy to finally feel a little more the age I "should" be with kids as old as mine, and why on earth parents let their children run wild in restaurants! But then, we have Christopher, and I just might have to admit to being sorely tempted to let him loose once or twice, and more than twice having had to reacquire him from the far reaches of a public place in spite of my best efforts. It was my birthday day, and I enjoyed chatting with my husband without someone else's voice constantly drowning us out with, "Hey Mom/Dad....!" At least in THAT I was not foiled!

I then pronounced that I wanted to go do something new and different, something we don't normally do. We decided upon bowling. We went to the nearest alley, only to be told that there was a league scheduled and we couldn't bowl. Dah! Foiled!

So how about a movie? We haven't seen a movie in a theater in forever! We went to the theater, and wouldn't you know, the only movie I was even remotely interested in seeing had already had its last showing for the day. Foiled!

So we drive off and look for something to do. We see a Michaels. That looks like fun. Right? So we stop. But there's construction, so we have to wend our way through the various fences, but we find it in the end. We goofed around in Michaels for a while. We had a sword fight (and I might yet go back and buy those, they were FUN!), we danced down the isle with the sparkly beads, we smelled all the yummy candles, we squished all the squishy balls, and we picked up a balsa wood airplane with a rubber-band propeller... for Christopher. Hey, isn't this MY birthday? Funny, the things being a parent does to you! The best thing you can think of is the look on your kids face "when he sees this!" Buying a birthday present that's actually for me: foiled. But that's ok. I have an airplane, this will be fun!

We finally decide to just go get a cake and go back to Grandma's. We drop by the little grocery Walmart near Grandma's, and they didn't have any of the kinds of cake I like! Foiled again! But they DID have trick candles!

So we head to Bashas down the road. They did have a cake that I like. Angel food and strawberries and whipped cream! Yum yum!

We get back to Grandma's and get the cake ready. Grandpa chided me a bit for making my own cake. Hey, I'm the mom, what can you expect? So we light the trick candles... and they don't work! Have I said it before? Yup, foiled!
We decide to try again, so we re-light them and decide to let Christopher blow them out. He was dying to the first time, but he was so kind as to refrain since it's my birthday. Now we tell him that this time he can blow them out. He gets really excited. Think of what he's thinking here: Mommy blew these out, and now I get a turn. Ready, set, BLOW! .... and this time they relight!!! Aw, it was great! His eyes were as big as the cake, and when he realized that the candles were popping right back, he took another big breath and with a big grin went "Poof!" and they all went out! Apparently you just have to blow hard enough. And he was nice enough to not spit on my cake.

We enjoyed the cake, and soon thereafter I was dozing off, so we went home.

In spite of almost everything we tried to do having something go wrong, I had a great day. It was a blast to just spend time doing whatever I wanted to do, even if what I wanted to do seems mundane, I love it. I love being with my boys, they're the best present I ever could have. I'm sure of it. And they don't last just for my birthday, they're permanent. And I love it!

More seeds!

I mentioned that we were growing seeds. Well, we did finally plant them. Not on the day I planned, but we DID do it. We planted the watermelon seeds in one large container, and the sunflowers in their own small peat pots.

Learning from previous experience, this time I gave Christopher a shovel, a lot of soil, and the pots. I kept the sprouts at a safe distance. After Christopher filled up the large container with dirt, I watered it, used a knife to make holes and slip the little watermelon seedlings in pairs into the holes, and secured them. They are, I am happy to report, doing well. Also learning from last time's experience, I covered them with plastic, and that made them very happy. Here they are now:




With the sunflowers, they were much larger and sturdier-looking, so since they get to be big not-so-clustery plants, I had pots to put each one in. Incidentallym of the sproutlings we had 16 worthy of planting, so two runts went in together and the rest got their own pot. After each was safely in place, I let Christopher help me water each one, then I set them on their shelf. Sadly, I expected too much of these "sturdy" sprouts. I also had not learned my lesson from the pansies well enough it seems, because while I covered the watermelon seedlings, I didn't cover these. And for whatever cause (or causes), they now look like this.

That's not the stalwart plant I put in there. They were huge when they went in, and now they're all shriveled and dead. I have it on my list to pick up more sunflower seeds next time I am at Walmart, and this time I shall remind myself to 1) plant them sooner; 2) cover them; 3) buy an extra pack!

But all in all, it's been fun. Minus the dirt in my kitchen, the smell of wet soil in the house, and the few rounds of sad childhood moaning about "why aren't they growing faster" and "why are those ones dead", it's been neat to watch them sprout in their little baggies and, in the case of the watermelons, begin to grow into neat little plants. I hope Christopher continues to enjoy them. I certainly do!

Cute Christopher!

Christopher is an angel and a devil. And I love him dearly! This afternoon he came out of his room, right before we were going to leave for the grocery store, covered in marker. He announced that he drew a picture, on himself. And, use your imagination for this, he had done it in red marker. On his chest, and his neck, and his face. And in case you didn't know, washable marker is only so washable on skin. I didn't even bother with his chest, but try as I might, I washed his face over and over and is still looked like someone had put a hot iron on his cheek.

Later at bathtime I told him to wash his face really well, and be sure to get all the way in the water so it would wash off his chest. Not only did he wash well, he washed for over an hour! If you ever have to remove red marker from children, I will pronounce a one hour bath as an excellent remedy.

Also, when I finally went into my room to go to bed, I discovered that Christopher had put a picture of Alexander on my headboard for me, and a bedtime book at the foot of my rocking chair, obviously laid out with great care so that I could easily read it. What a darling!!!

Neighbors, sigh

****WARNING****
~Sad post follows~

So here is the scoop on my drive-me-crazy neighbors, which some of you have heard me vent about. A few months back, a young man moved into the adjacent unit. He didn't appear to have a car, and judging by the hours he kept, he didn't have a job.

Then he started playing loud music. It was so loud that it shook the walls, and the volume continued to increase over time until it was waking the kids up and I could hear every foul-mouthed lyric. We had at first given him the benefit of the doubt and presumed that maybe he was having a party or two at his new house. Besides, it's just a fact of life that when you share a wall with someone you hear some noise, and we count ourselves very lucky to not live in an apartment where we'd share all our walls. About the time that we were deciding to go next door and ask him to tone down the music, it quieted down. He has continued to play it at all hours, and loud enough to shake the walls, but at least it's not waking us up and I can't hear the cussing.

Then came the drugs. This young man and a group of friends started smoking substances that are illegal in the backyard. I used to like to let Christopher play out there with his dog, and in his sandbox, but the smoke got so bad that even with all the doors and windows closed, our house constantly smelled of smoke. One day it was so bad it was making me sick, and I can only imagine how it was making the boys feel. I didn't really feel comfortable going out and telling a bunch of people who were innundated with an illegal substance to cut it out so I could breathe, so I called the property manager. He said I should ask them to "tone it down". Well fat lot of good that did.

Next came the people. In addition to the drugs, a large number of people started coming to his house, at all hours, and almost invariably on foot. Some were the kind of people who make you check if your doors are locked and your valuables are there. Some were regulars, some were unknown people who came once and never again. I finally called the police and made a report. They agreed that it sounded like someone was dealing drugs there.

And then came the car. Between 3:00-6:00am, someone smashed Bryan's new car so badly that it was illegal to drive it until it was fixed. The damage was really severe. I talked to the other two neighbors that I know well, and we're sure it wasn't anyone visiting them. And then two different vehicles showed up at this new neighbor's house, both of which had damage that matched with Bryan's car. Hmmm.... Bryan managed to fix up his car enough that it's now driveable, but it no longer has any resale value.

So I called the property manager again and told him I'd had to make two police reports since that guy moved in, and I was upset about it. He said there really wasn't a lot he could do about it, maybe I should just talk to him. "Sure, I'd love to go talk to someone who drinks, parties, does drugs, and has friends who destroy other people's property. I'll just head right over." NOT!!!!

The final straw was when our front insane neighbor's dogs got out, and I had to call Animal Control. They also broke into our back yard. The neighbors, not the dogs. I called the manager and basically yelled at him to do something, now. Then the next day I wrote him a letter detailing all the rotten things that had been going on, and asking him to do something immediately or call us and tell us that he wouldn't so we could move out immediately.

Well, he did call. And he had some interesting thing to say. The new neighbor doesn't have a job. He's not mentally competent, and lives off disability. That's why he does, in fact, have no job and no car. Apparently he lives mostly alone with some supervision from his aunt and a friend. His mom was the one mostly responsible for keeping him in line though, and the manager had called her and told her everything that was going on. She said that she hadn't known about all the stuff that was happening, and promised him she'd take care of it. There was also some mention that this man had been kicked out of the last place he lived, and he was hoping to not have that happen again. So now I kind of felt bad for him, but still felt that my family's safety should be of the more important than his "social life", if that's what such behavior is called.

Thing did quiet down a bit after that. The partying dropped off, the smoking wasn't unbearable (and seems to have been reduced to cigarettes), and the strange train of people subsided. It seemed like this might be bearable, until....

I woke up one day last week and was hurrying to an appointment. When I went outside to get in my car, I found graffiti scrawled on my hood. I drove off, but I called the manager and told him that now my car had been messed with, and the cost of the damage being caused was adding up, so we'd be looking for another place to live. Now, I know for a fact that he doesn't want us to leave. We're excellent renters: always pay early, never miss a payment, never damage the property, never call and bug him, and we've lived here for longer than he's been the manager. He tells me that he'd rather have this new guy leave, and he'd take care of it. Then I felt bad because I really didn't want to get him kicked out, I just want my family and our property to be safe. I went to the appointment and then to a car wash. Sad news: in spite of my best efforts, that graffiti isn't ever coming all the way off. I got home and told Bryan all about my rotten day.

Once I'm done crying it out, I was getting ready to go to Grandma's for a while with the kids. I went outside to put Christopher in the car, and this guy and his friend come over to talk to me. Bryan's inside and can't hear them. The man tells me that he's really sorry for the music, and he didn't know who was messing with our cars, and he'd like to do anything he can to be a good neighbor. Now, knowing what I know about him thus far, I really appreciated what he was trying to do. And I told him thank you for coming over to talk to me about it. Then after he went back inside, I went inside and burst into tears. It'd been a long day, and that was my last straw.

So all said, I think the guy is nice enough, and I'd feel really bad if he got kicked out again, but he's got friends who are apparently not respectful of him, his house, and his neighbor's property and safety, and short of him having no friends over, there doesn't seem to be a lot anyone can do to prevent what others are doing when they come to this guy's house. We're going to give it a shot at staying where we are and seeing if things improve further now that everyone knows what terrible things have been going on, but if anything else happens, you'll be seeing news about us moving to a new home.

There, I vented. Hopefully now everyone will know and I won't have to repeat my sob story ever again!


P.S. Throughout all this, we have felt very blessed that we didn't buy a house when we wanted to. We feel very grateful that the Lord blocked us off all the times we put in purchase contracts on other homes, and even on other rentals. One of the homes we almost bought has lost nearly $20,000 in value, and we would have been sunk in debt over it. And when Bryan lost his job, it became obvious that the homes we'd tried to rent would now have been beyond our ability to afford. So even though all this is frustrating, we feel blessed to be here where we at least don't have to worry about finances and debt. Whew!

Lack of sleep

I've been getting very little sleep lately. And not only because of the baby. One night last week, Christopher went to bed early, Bryan went to bed late, and Alexander went to bed later. I went to bed latest of all. Then after about 3 hours of sleep, I am awoken to the sound of Christopher crunching something in the hall.

Now, the fact that I can hear him (rather than see him) was a dead give-away. We sleep with our door open. About the only time it's closed is when Christopher closes it A) to keep the dog in or out, or B) to make sure we can't see him. This time it was probably for both reasons, as he had the dog with him. But anyway, I open the door and see that he has re-carpeted our hallway with construction paper in varying sizes. I also note that most of the toys that had previously been on his shelves were now on his floor. And when I dared look into the previously tidy living room, that was when I turned around, closed the door again, and went back to bed. Not like there was anything I could do about it now, and there was very little that could make it worse.

The funniest part of it all is that shortly thereafter, Bryan got up to go to the bathroom. I knew he'd see Christopher, and the mess. And then he came back to bed and went back to sleep too!

Trip to Phoenix, and Easter

This weekend we went to Phoenix to visit Bryan's family and attend the baptism of Hannah and Jason. Tristan is going to be baptized next weekend, so it looks like we'll be going up again. We also had an Easter party. We left Tucson at 5:30 am in order to make it there in time for the baptism. As a result, we wound up napping during the middle of the day. Besides, it poured rain the entire day, so it was a gloomy day anyway.

*Edit. I forgot something. I forget a lot of somethings lately.

On Easter Sunday after church we went to Aunt Janet's for Easter lunch. Ann, Josiah, and Jesse were there. It was very nice to see my "boy cousins". I was asking them each what was new with them, and it wasn't much. But one thing made me smile. Josiah has this great girlfriend named Lindsey, who used to live on the opposite coast, but has since moved to where he is. He mentioned that they are thinking about moving in together. I secretly wanted to laugh at the look on Mimi and Janet's faces when they overheard that.

After the meal the kids went outside to play. True to tradition, the Tadpoles caught another tarantula. Eventually they had the Easter Egg Hunt. They had colored eggs at Mimi's on Friday. Christopher was upset that he didn't find more (he had a whole bag full), so when he had a meltdown we had to leave. But it was time anyway.

Seeds!

Christopher has been enjoying "The Magic Schoolbus" series on DVD for the past few months. It has lead to statements such as "My intestines hurt" and "Look at those sound waves". These and other equally age-inappropriate statements sound hillarious coming from the mouth of a 4-year-old. But I'm very happy to have him learning about himself and the world around him.

I came across a $.99 copy of "The Magic Schoolbus Goes to Seed" and I bought it. It's about how plants are pollinated, mostly, but they cover briefly what seeds are and how to grow them. Christopher was suddenly consumed with the desire to plant seeds. And then there's dirt, which any self-respecting young boy loves. And so began the seeds.

I had an old pack of pansies lying around which we put into a plastic bag to sprout them, but between the mold that snuck in and the "planting" they endured when Christopher "helped", they didn't live. So we bought new seeds. Sturdier ones, I might add.


Here you have first Sunflower seeds, second Watermelon seeds. They took about 5 days to reach this stage.

I will have to update this again shortly, as tomorrow's project is to transfer these sproutlings into pots. I haven't yet figured out how exactly I'm going to let Christopher "help" this time. Maybe we'll go outside and he can be in charge of the dirt instead of the seeds. Wish those seeds luck! (And maybe me a little too!)

Good news?

Yesterday I discovered that Alexander has learned to suck his thumb.

Emotions

Alexander is a good baby, as far as new babies go. But when he has emotions, boy does he have them! And he has excellent facial expressions to go with them. He laughs, he cries, he coos, he whines, he mumbles. He's very cute.

However, as his mother, I have one problem. Whenever I pull out my camera to catch his latest adorable face, he instantly does this:



And he stays like that as long as the camera is out. Even if he was having a huge fit or a big laugh, he'll stop as soon as he sees my camera and just stare at it. But not this time! HA HA!


Tonight he was having one of these nights:



So I whipped out my camera... and got the stare. Phooey, foiled again. But a minute later he was wailing again, so this time I sneaked out the camera, got it all set up, and:


I CAUGHT IT!!!! This, ladies and gentlemen, is the infamous pout of his! I abolutely love it. I think it's so adorable. And when he does it in conjunction with his cute version of crying (he will let out just one "Waaa!" and then check to see if you heard him) I can hardly keep from laughing.

So there you have it, for those of you who haven't seen it. And I now have photographic evidence of how cute my new baby boy is, even when he's upset.

And in case you were wondering, yes, he does do the opposite. He actually has been smiling and laughing for a few weeks (he seems too young to be doing all this!!!), and like the pout I have never been able to catch the laughter on camera. The closest I have is this:

It was taken by Bryan, who doesn't know how to use my camera. But in spite of the fact that he couldn't figure out the focus, you can see that Alexander definitely has an adorable smile.

I love my boys!

Movie time

We have a Netflix subscription, mostly for the benefits of getting BBC series that we love and can't find elsewhere.

HOWEVER, we discovered, and Christopher loves, that you can instantly watch a large number of movies and tv shows, any time, as much as you want, as many times as you want. For the adults, this translates into more movie nights. For Christopher, this translates into unlimited amounts of Kipper, Barney, Bob the Builder, Blue's Clues, and anything else that's available and we permit.

When Bryan realized this feature was available, the first thing he let Christopher watch was what he deemed "superheroes". So Bryan finds a comic that he liked as a kid called "Justice League" and lets Christopher watch it. Now, I'm super picky about what I let Christopher see, and usually if there's even a chance that the video is questionable or may have plot themes he'd ask me about later, I'll watch it with him to be sure I can control what he's seeing and how he's interpreting it. But Bryan assures me that this is a kid's comic, and it'll be fun for Christopher.

Now, you must know here that Bryan's computer has headphones because it has no speakers. And that Christopher is very computer-savvy and knows how to operate the video player that Netflix runs on. So, several rounds of "Justice League" later, I walk by and see a half-dead guy bleeding from the mouth and laughing wickedly as he lays dying and the superheroes stand around. WHAT?!?!?!?!? I have a minor tantrum aimed at my dearly beloved husband, who had no idea that this version of Justice League was in fact terribly violent.

When I pronounce that there will be no more superheroes EVER in this house (I really don't like the fact that they're violent, and that after watching even so much as The Incredibles, Christopher goes on a destruction spree), Christopher has a complete meltdown. "WHY can't I have superheroes?" Well dear, because I don't want you shooting, hitting, kicking, exploding, and otherwise destroying my house, your family members, your toys, your dog, and your friends. Nor do I want you asking me why the "heroes" can and you can't. "But WHY?" Because it's not right, it never was, and it never will be. But it's not like that goes into a little kid's head. Somehow the interest a four year old has in on-screen violence is greater than the interest they have in moral values.

So he is now parked next to me laughing at Kipper episodes. And when he came to me after watching one yesterday and said, "Mom, snow sticks to us, and if you roll down a hill you turn into a snowball" I smiled and had a warm fuzzy feeling inside. That's right kid, I want you to learn about snowballs and sledding. That's much better than coming to me and saying "Mommy, Spiderman's eyes are gone." What am I supposed to say to that?!? Snowballs are so much better, and better for him. Having him "imagination" building things with friends or going on adventures with them is so much more enjoyable to watch than him savagely stabbing his action figures. I'd much rather the action figures join him for his imaginary picnic lunch in the park.

And since I'm the Mommy, and I can control what's going into my children's heads, I can assure you as I watch him beside me that there will be less household casualties and more secret adventures with Kipper and Blue, more construction projects with Manny, and more music with the Einsteins. Yes, thanks to the talent of some unknown cartoonist, my son can learn the values of friendship, honestly, responsibility, culture, and the arts.... while I sit next to him communicating with friends and paying the bills, and the dishwasher and dryer are running, at long last.

Eek! A mouse!!!

So I have a new baby, right? And that means I don't get as much sleep, right? Well, I would have been getting more lately, except that I've been kept up all night by a creature in my house! Right about the time my heart rate goes back to normal, it makes a huge noise somewhere, and I get freaked out and can't sleep again. It's been pretty rotten.

So the other night/morning I was talking to one of my East Coast relatives at 5:30 am (9:30 for her), while perched on a chair in the middle of my kitchen, watching. And I see it! It's a small, golden mouse. It's after the dog's food bowl (which is empty) and it's scared to death of me.

Now I know what it is, and it's not so scary. Considering our neighbors, I really hadn't been sure what they let into our house. Oh, and before you think I'm just picking on them, I was up the night the critter got in. It came through the wall we share with our terribad new neighbors. I heard it make a racket as it scurried it's way in, and I was pretty sure that since it had fallen out of the wall from a fair height it wouldn't be able to get back in.

But now I knew it was just a mouse. I told Bryan when he woke up, and we decided to get a Have-A-Heart trap to catch it. Well, just in case you live here and ever wonder, no one sells Have-A-Heart traps any more. I called 4 stores before I found an Ace Hardware that had them. So I go in to buy it, and they are $18.00 for one tiny little mouse trap. Considering Bryan's job situation, I called him, and we counseled together, and sadly, we decided that one little mouse's life wasn't worth $18 to us. I cringed and bought a $1.50 snap trap, came home, and passed off the horrendous item and chore to Bryan.

Now here's what really gets me: I kill mice all the time!!!! I have been tossing them into snake cages since before I can remember doing it. But somehow, knowing that the circle of life must go on and the mouse must be eaten if my beloved snake is to live is different in my mind than mercilessly killing a mouse just because I don't want it eating my food and chewing my electronics. However, preventing that was - of course - the more reasonable thing to do, and so the traps were set. Bryan was kind enough to remind me to not look if I heard it go off. Not that I really needed the reminder, I felt bad enough just for buying them, let alone seeing the result.

Two nights ago, Bryan and I are awake late, and what do we hear? Yes, the trap snapped. Bryan got up, got the trap, and threw it in the trash!!!! I howled in protest, made him take it out, bag it up, and dispose of it properly - all while covering my eyes with my hands. If there will be no living mice in my kitchen, there will be no dead ones either!!!! And I don't think I was being entirely unreasonable: I had just taken the trash out, and there was absolutely NO way I was letting a poor dead mouse sit in my kitchen trash until the next time the trash went out.

And so it was, that the event was properly taken care of. There is no longer a mouse in my house. My sanity, and that of the dog, is once again intact. But I still feel bad that I killed it.... and there's no snake around to be happy about it.

No fun for Conference

We were supposed to go to Sahuarita to visit some friends for General Conference on Saturday. And then Bryan got sick and was up all night throwing up. So instead of watching Christopher flirt with his (blue-eyed, blonde & curly-haired) girlfriend, Bryan slept all day and sipped peppermint tea, whilst I tried to stay awake (and sane) with the kids. Aside from falling asleep in my chair, I was fairly sucessful. Although I could only take so many rounds of Christopher's version of Uno.

Tomorrow's forecast: More of the same.

Wish of the day: If only I could ever get more than 3-4 hours of sleep....

Funny Grandpa

Grandpa's been saying for a while now that he wishes he had some 3-D glasses so he can look at some pictures of Mars online. I had some from a 3-D movie which I gave him. But they turned out to be a different technology and didn't work. So, at Bryan's suggestion, I ordered some from Ebay and had them shipped to him as a surprise. After a while I got an email from him with this most excellent statement:

"I'd have written sooner but, I'm happy to report, I've been on Mars seeing things as they really are."

Lots of time at home

On Thursday, March 26th, I went to Grandma's house. I was hiding from my awful neighbors, which is another story entirely. Once I got the boys settled in, I went into the office and snuggled up for a nap.

I was awakened by Bryan. I thought, "Either I slept waaay too long, or he's here for lunch!" But then, with no further ado, Bryan tells me that he's been laid off. Oh, that's not quite coming home for lunch. Once he realized that I wasn't upset, he seemed less tense, and we went out and talked for a bit. While we're sad that he doesn't have a job, he didn't like that one anyway, so it's a great opportunity to get another one.

I find it very amusing that he woke me up to tell me that. I should try it on him sometime: "Oh, you're barely conscious? Great, I'll tell you my bad news now before you're awake enough to think about it!" I'm sure that's not what he meant to do, but it still amused me.