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?