The evil fog.

  Mother nature has unleashed her fall splendor upon the vineyards. The ebb and flow of color as it moves across one vineyard to another creates an ever changing canvas of unparalleled beauty. I mentioned in my last post that fall is not one of my favorite seasons. I have to clarify that I do love the beauty of the fall colors and I anticipate them each year here in wine country, however, it is the shorter days, longer nights, and cooler weather that I am not fond of. The rains begin to fall this time of year as well, which I do enjoy. We have had 2 inches in October and 1 5/8 inches in November thus far. The rains bring up the green grasses between the rows of grape vines adding to the spectacular color pallet. 

  As with most toddlers, Apollo relishes rainy days as it gives him a reason to wear his green alligator rain boots (not that he ever really needed a reason).  Melanie keeps her iPad propped up beside our bed. She has an alarm clock app that not only shows the time, but also shows the weather, using a sun or moon and clouds. Apollo will awaken at any given time of the night, and peer at the iPad; "Is the sun coming up yet?" he whispers. "Not yet, go back to sleep." I reply. As will often happen this time of year, the icon for the moon or sun will have clouds either completely blocking out the moon or sun, or wisps of clouds in front of them, only partially concealing them. Apollo looks for these cues to the weather. "But dada, the evil fog is hiding the sun! Is the sun going to burn off the evil fog so we can get up?" It is at this point that Melanie will kick us both out of bed and out of the room. In her defense, it usually is between 5:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. when this happens.  The 'evil fog' is a name that I provided Apollo with; after all... fog is evil!  

Apollo, has mastered the art of talking back and sarcasm. There is no waiting until his teenage years for this kid. I enjoy hearing him use my phrases on his brothers (and to some degree, his mother) and in general conversation. "I will come over there!", "Busted!"(when Melanie calls one of the teens), "It's the police!" (when someone is at the door), "You don't love me!"(when asked to do something he doesn't want to do), "Don't make me shove this in your mouth!"(When he offers to share some food with you). 

  I can also figure out what has been going on around the house while I am away at work, by the phrase Apollo uses that he did not get from me. Recently, upon arriving home from work, I was bantering with Apollo and teasing him a bit. You can imagine my surprise when he spouted off, "Dada! Quit being an ASS!" Actually, It came out the way Apollo heard it, "Quit being a nasst!" As much as I would like to blame Melanie, this has Ian and Aden written all over it. (I am leaning more towards Aden as he does not always enunciate) 

Orion, is all smiles and giggles. He
squeals, screams and coos, and he smiles as soon as he sees his mom or dad. There is something very comforting about your infants voice (when they are not crying that is). My favorite thing is hearing Apollo laughing hysterically and Orion giggling at the same time. A child's laughter is infectious and fills the home with more warmth than the a fireplace. Orion rolls over like crazy now and is very proud of himself and his new found talent. He hates his car seat, hates riding in the car, but loves his swing, and loves music and singing. He is active and wiggly, yet loves to cuddle.
   There is nothing that I treasure or value more than my boys. I can not imagine a moment with out them. I look at Apollo and I can't believe how much of a little man he is becoming. His eyes are filled with wonder and excitement. Every moment is a victory or a tragedy. There is no grey area at this age. He wants to be completely independent yet he wants you to do everything for him. He is strong willed, yet giving and caring. He is amazingly insightful and perceptive and at times seems to have wisdom beyond his years. Just as I begin to panic inside that he is growing up way too fast, Apollo will turn to me, "Dada, I want to hold you." Crawl up into my arms, yawn, close his eyes and lay his head on my shoulder, and fall fast asleep...This son has burned off my evil fog.

A real bumble bee

Don't let Apollo and Orion's serious
looks fool you; they really were
having a great time.

  As a parent of a newborn and a toddler, it is easy to find all the things that make your baby unique, special, and just plain better than everyone else's baby. I know this to be true as I find myself doing this very thing. Truth be told, every baby, not just my own, is unique, and special, and yes, better than everyone else's baby. It is these feelings that endear us to our offspring and create a bond that is strong enough to get us through their teenage years. Well, at least Melanie says this keeps her from strangling our teens.
  As for Apollo, his memory, perception, comprehension, language skills, sarcasm, stubbornness and sense of humor, are the traits that stand out and make him so amazingly special to me. It is incredible to see how much of a persons personality is already preprogrammed and is manifesting itself at the first weeks and months of life. Having a newborn in the house has caused me to reflect back on Apollo as an infant. That kid was stubborn from his first breath. So many of his traits as an infant are present three and a half years later. I never thought that those first few months were painting a picture of Apollo's personality. It is funny to me when I look at his life in reverse, how the very basic personality traits were already there in the first month or two after his birth. In many ways, he has not changed at all. This bit of insight has allowed me to open up my mind to the blank canvas that is Orion, and watch as the colors and brush strokes begin to paint his personality portrait.

  As Halloween has recently passed, I would like to share with you a peek into the mind of Apollo. Around early September, Apollo began to speak about 'dressing up' for the 'costume time'. Somehow, he knew (here is that memory I mentioned) that Halloween was coming up. He talked about a few different ideas that he had for costumes. One day, out of the blue, Apollo declared that he wanted to be a bumble bee for the 'costume time'. My initial thought was "Awesome! Bumble Bee from the transformer movies! Super easy...that is one of the hottest kid costumes of the year!" This made perfect sense to me since he has a Bumble Bee Transformer car that was one of his favorite cars at that time. I grabbed his toy car and my lap top, and quickly pulled up a picture of the Transformer Bumble Bee costume; "Is this the Bumble Bee costume you want?" I started. "NO!", Apollo snapped back, " I want to be a REAL bumble bee, not that bumble bee, and baby brother can be a baby bee and Remi (our dog) can be a bee, and you can be the daddy bee and mommy can be the Queen Bee."

 Okay, I must admit that I was a bit perplexed at this point; mostly because I have no idea where he got this idea. Granted, we own the Disney Pixar Bee movie, but it is not one of Apollo's favorites and he had not watched it in months. Had we gone with his favorite characters, he would have been Dora and I would have been Boots, or possibly Lightning McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars. Maybe it was a documentary on bees or insects...the point is, I have no clue where he came up with this idea. When I asked Apollo what made him think of this, his reply was simple, "I just like to fly." I am sure this comes from his flying dreams. A good friend once shared a quote on Facebook that sums this up; "Flying dreams mean that your doing the right thing with your life." ~ Doug Coupland (Thank you Annie Mac!) It's been a while since I have had flying dreams of my own, maybe its time to make some changes.
  I would like to tell you that it is hard to find bumble bee costumes for little boys. There are lots of choices for little girls, but for boys, not so much. All said and done, we did go with the bumble bee theme. the only changes we made were that I was a bee keeper and Melanie was a bee hive...it seemed all too fitting.
  Orion is the smiliest, happiest baby ever. He seems to laugh and smile nonstop now while he is awake. His little legs and arms are constantly in motion as if he is running.  He is most content when he is in an upright position, either propped up sitting or dangling off the front of his mom. He is laid back and easy to please, as long as you keep moving.

 Orion is soothed very easy by singing to him. Apollo would get mad (and still does) if he didn't like the song you were singing. Orion has discovered his voice and is trying out various vocalizations and screams. He is able to reach out and grab hold of an item in front of himself, and has just started to roll over from his back to his front. He could have been rolling over for weeks now, but that would require that he is laid down to spend some time on his own. Melanie claims that he is way too cute not to hold all day long...and then accuses me of being the one that spoils him...

Okay, I think we are both guilty of being spoilers, but look at this face, how can you set this little guy down when all he does is smile and laugh at you?