Hormones and hissy fits!

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorn  pregnant! 

As we enter week 12 and the end of the first trimester, all I have to say is "Whoa!" Yup, pregnancy has been a wild ride this time around. The only two innocent people in this story are Apollo and myself and we have suffered a wrath of hormonal terrorism that is second to none! In fact, I hope that when Melanie reads this, I am not at home, or I will be beaten severely, before she gets through this blog and sees that I actually had a chance to redeem myself. 

  Yes, I am exaggerating and being slightly dramatic, however, those of you who know Melly well, know what I am talking about and will find humor in this. 

  To save my hide, let me set the stage. This whole month, since the first of the year has been pretty rough. Kylie, a 10 month old baby that Melanie has been baby sitting since she was 3 months old, has been very sickly; severe cold, runny nose double ear infection, kidney infection, rashes, etc... Poor little thing has been miserable and needed to be held and tended to all day every day. As if this is hard enough as is, Apollo, came down with a fever by weeks end, followed by a runny nose, and by day 4 of his fever, a visit to the doctor revealed that he too, had a double ear infection. This was Apollo's first time on antibiotics. The funny thing is, the first four days, prior to receiving antibiotics, he was actually in good spirits while he was awake, and really wasn't complaining for how sick he was. In kind, Mel became sick, I became sick, and even Ian tried to be sick. Now, I can't blame Melanie's antics on this nasty cold, as some of her "verbal" abusing was done prior to her falling ill.

  Case #1: Mid-day, mid week. Mel is sitting on the couch watching tv, while rocking Kylie, who had been crying for an hour, to sleep. Apollo was also, crying and trying to fall asleep on Mellys lap. Just as Kylie drifted off and Apollo was starting to settle, "DING-DONG". The door bell rings, and Kylie was startled awake and begins to cry. The parrots in the garage begin to scream as well. "KNOCK KNOCK" Came a follow up. Both kids were awake now and crying. As Melanie relayed this story to me, my skin began to crawl at this point as I know what was coming next. On the other side of the door, was our poor, unsuspecting, sweet, innocent, little mail lady. As the door flew open, this cheerful mail lady (with 2 boxes for Melanie, in her arms) started with. "Wow, the birds sure are excited today, were you out in the garage with them just now?" "NO!" Mel exclaimed in her best sarcastic, and demeaning voice, while holding one crying infant with a crying toddler clinging to her leg, " I WAS TRYING TO PUT TWO SICK BABIES TO SLEEP! THEY HAD BOTH JUST FALLEN TO SLEEP WHEN YOU RANG THE DOOR BELL AND CONTINUED TO KNOCK UNTIL EVERYONE WAS AWAKE AND SCREAMING AND CRYING! THANKS ALOT!" Then Mel slammed the door in her face.

  Case #2: So, this time around, the events started out very similar. It was nap time, a few days later, and the babies were just falling asleep. Because we live in gods country, it was a nice 70 degree day and the front windows were open and Mel is sure that the unsuspecting solicitor, could hear the tv, which is why he was persistent. "DING-DONG.....DING-DONG....DING-DONG!" When the door flew open this time, there stood a large black man, he started to open his mouth to speak and was cut off by Mels wrath.  "YOU KNOW WHAT?! WHEN SOMEONE DOESNT ANSWER THE DOOR AFTER THE FIRST RING, YOU DONT KEEP RINGING IT JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN HEAR THE TV OR BECAUSE YOU THINK SOMEONE IS HOME! I HAVE 2 SICK BABIES THAT YOU WOKE UP AND ARE NOW SCREAM BECAUSE YOU WERE SO RUDE AND INCONSIDERATE...." Slam went the door once again. I am sure there was an expletive or two in there and I am sure there was a lot more said in both incidences, but you get the gist. In the latter, Mel said the solicitor kept trying to interject with "But......but....but" and turned pale white by the end.

  I was fortunate enough to be at work during both of these Verbal altercations, I was however, unfortunate enough to be present at several others. Each time, I want to light myself on fire and run from the building.

  Honorable mention goes to the nurses at the OB/GYN office. Kaiser has a policy that when they seat the patient, they take her in first and come and retrieve the husband or father latter. They do this because they are now required to ask the woman if she is being beaten or abused by her significant other. First, the receptionist got an earful about how they asked those questions last time and that their policy was completely ridiculous and they needed to change it and that she didn't have time for their "dumb" policies. Upon being quizzed by the nurse, Melanie informed her how stupid and ridiculous their policy was and that no one was asking her husband if he was being abused and "he is the one you should be worrying about". At last, a moment of clarity! 

  I know I am making light of this whole situation, but, if you understand that first Melanie has had crabby babies all day, and then two teenagers that are incapable of doing anything on their own and then act like they are so put out that they have to lift a finger to do anything (which is typically picking up after themselves), then you add pregnancy hormones on top of inherited, fiery rage, well...its like tossing a bucket of gasoline on a small fire. 

I cant even imagine the the physical and emotional changes that a woman undergoes while pregnant, and to all this I am sympathetic. Our goal is one and the same; to have a happy, healthy full term baby and a mother that is equally happy and healthy. 

  I love Apollo more with each passing day and will love the new one with as much vigor. We have been so blessed with healthy kids, and are so thankful for Apollo and what he has brought to our family and our relationship. He talks nonstop now and has become so good at articulating what he is thinking. "Mama, I not honey, I'm Apollo.", "Mama has a baby in her belly.",  "I don't want a baby sister.", "Mama is really crabby." and my all time favorite to date; "Dada, I love you so much!"

  Apollo knows his alphabet all the way through, and can identify them by sight. He can count to twenty, and believe it or not, he is learning some spanish from his new favorite cartoon, "Dora the Explora";  Abajo (down), Hola! (hello), Cocodrilo (crocodile), Delicioso (delicious). and, Shak a la mano! (smack the hand or shake the hand). Okay, that last one he got from me.  

  Needless to say, this is such a fun age. I adore everything this amazing little guy does and says. I credit Melanie with so much of his learned abilities (less the spanish of course). She does an amazing job of keeping him up on 'Your baby can read', working with him on his alphabets, reading to him, counting with him and more. I do my part by trying to inject the humor and personality into him. Apollo and I are working on "Don't shake me mama!" Mel will be so horrified when he screams that one in the store!
  At the end of the day, Melly is such a good mom. She provides Apollo with an artistic, fun, active and educative environment, and is very nurturing. Apollo has learned that his mom has limits. On several occasions when he realizes that his mom is about to have a melt down and is getting angry, he gently takes a hold of his moms arm, looks her directly in the eyes, and reminds her, "Mama, we don't hit!"

(Disclaimer: Apollo has never had a spanking. We don't hit comes from "Apollo! We don't hit!" as he often likes to hit to express himself)

Spread your wings

 We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill, 
As the day begs the night for mercy love.
The sun so bright it leaves no shadows, only scars,
carved into stone, on the face of earth.
The moon is up and over one tree hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes. ---U2, One tree hill


  With a heavy heart we once again say good bye to one of our beloved family members. Harold spread his wings and departed us this afternoon. It is our belief that Harold suffered a massive heart attack due to a blood clot. He passed away in a matter of minutes in Melanie's arms. We are still in shock. It happened so fast that I still have not had enough time to process it. 

 Harold was our first rescue and second feathered family member. He came to us in his early teens and had been passed around through several homes over his life before we adopted him. Harold had some serious health issues. We quickly discovered that he had broken his thigh at some point and had never received medical attention. The bones fused side by side. He had a permanent limp and another possible injury affected his ability to fly in a straight line. The first year we had Harold, he suffered a mild blood clot or stroke, that left him temporarily incapacitated and confused. With all these problems, he managed to carve out quite a place in our hearts and lives.

    Harold was a sweet soul. He loved his flock, and protected them fiercely. He liked nothing more than to cuddle. He mimicked the sound of breathing, snoring, teeth brushing, and a baby crying. He, more than any other bird in our flock, was completely in tune with all our emotions and actions. He would cry when the boys would cry, sing when we sang, join in with Melanie when she would reprimand the boys with a very sarcastic "Blah, blah, blah!", and then chase any offender of the peace around the house with wings spread and beak open.

 Harold loved the sun. He would find that perfect spot, spread his wings, throw his head back, and start flapping. We called this his "Sun Dance". It was his way to pay homage to the sun and all its warmth and glory. It was quite the spectacle. In this series of photos, he even picked up an offering in the form of a dandelion, less the flower of course, as I am sure he ate it it first.

 One of my fondest memories of Harold was his love of music, especially 'Happy Birthday'. He would try to sing along the best he could; "Happy...happy..Harold".

Harold with Aden 2003

 In the short 9 years we shared our lives with Harold, he had made several long road trips with us and was the best passenger. Always the gentleman, he would let you know when he needed to relieve himself, we would pull over, roll down the window, hold him out the window or set him on the mirror. He would take care of business and we would be on our way.

Apollo with Harold 2010

 Harold also visited classrooms with Melanie and he always put on a show.  He loved to entertain and loved the attention.....

We miss his voice, his spirit, and his sweet presence. Harold, you are so missed. God speed my friend.

Harold
1988 - January 11, 2011

New year, new life!

Baby Miles 8weeks 3 days

Surprise! We are having a baby! This is what the New Year has in store for us. This was a total surprise to us as well and completely unexpected. For some unknown reason, we are excited to add one more mouth to feed to our little family. We have known since December 1st but have for the most part kept it on the down low, mostly because we were uncertain if things were going to stay this way. It is still early and we are still worried that something could go wrong, however, we wanted to share our joy with all of our friends and family.

Baby Thomas 8 weeks 6 days

  Sometimes, certain things happen, and they are seemingly beyond coincidence. I believe that in many cases, a coincidence is nothing more then that, but other times, there seems to be something else at work. In this instance, it is two fold.
  Case in point: December 1st, Melanie takes a pregnancy test, instant result was positive. December 2nd. I text my BFF Aaron and tell him the news, as we have often kept each other apprised of this type of info this early on. Aaron tells me that Michelle (Aaron's wife) thinks that she might be pregnant and she is taking a test latter that day. Her tests are confirmed. Now we are all kind of blown away by the odds of this as we could not have planned it if we tried. It turns out that both our due dates are 2 days apart. As weird as this might be, the coincidences keep on coming. Melanie's due date is August 7th, 2011. August 7th is Melanie's grandpa, Joe Hall's Birthday. Grandpa Joe passed away less than a year ago with Melanie and other family members by his side. Now, I know that fewer than 5% of babies are born on their due date, however, if you knew Joe Hall, you would know that it would be just like him to some how make things  happen this way for two reasons that I can think of; First and foremost, Joe was (and apparently still is) a prankster, and would have found the irony of this situation, to be funny. Secondly, Joe liked to be in control and take charge and to me this sends a message that "Hey, I'm still here, and I am still calling the shots!"
  Melanie has often talked about wishing she had a little girl, and I have often dreamt that Apollo had a little sister, so we are thinking there is a good chance that this new life could be a little girl. Only time will tell, and we will be happy either way, but for all our sakes, I am hoping Melly gets her little girl.
  There is another "coincidence" to this story that I am not privy to tell at this time, but it just adds another dimension to this whole situation. I will provide an update to this when it is appropriate.
  Say your prayers for all of us that all will be okay and that we will have  healthy new babies at the end of July or beginning of August.  Also, say your prayers for Apollo as he will have to accept sharing his throne. I think his life will be changed more than the rest of ours.
Happy New Year!!

Who's having a baby?