Cause and effect

 A new year has begun. This year promises to be an interesting one, to say the least. So many decisions to be made and things to be done. This year can hold many big changes, or very few. It is overwhelming when I look at the big picture. The dynamics of having toddlers and teens all under one roof, really puts an unbalanced spin on every decision we contemplate. What may be beneficial to the toddlers can be detrimental to the teens, and vise versa.
  The work that I do for a living has me buried in numbers and spreadsheets all day with the added bonus of dealing with retail customers and contractors, and I mean that very sarcastically. I swear that by the end of most days I have smoke coming out of my ears. There are nights that my dreams are filled with numbers and spreadsheet equations, so much so that I feel I have worked the entire night. If not for my children, I think I would give it all up to work in a nursery, propagating plants. As silly as that may sound, my ideal life would be having a couple acres in Hawaii, with a green house or two, and a hand full of chickens. I would have a farm full of exotic fragrant flowers, plants and orchids. There is something therapeutic about working with your hands and working with nature. For myself, it makes me feel connected to something real and something living.
  I feel this same connection to the living with Apollo and Orion, and they certainly are the highlight of my day. Orion is five months old as of new years day.  At this age, it is like watching a flower bud start to unfold and bloom. His personality and physical development are in high gear now, and I can see the changes on a daily basis. Orion is happy and loves to smile and laugh. I have said in previous posts that he is constantly in motion, and this is still true. For the past month, he has been getting up onto his hands and knee's. He rolls from front to back, and back to front like a champ, and scoots around the floor in pursuit of anything that catches his eye.

  Since New Year's day, Orion has  been working hard to develop his crawling skills. He is strong and instantly goes into crawling position when you place him on the floor. In his attempts to move forward, he will push his entire rear end up in the air, lifting his knees off the floor only to be left with his toes and hands contacting the floor.  It won't be long, and Orion will be moving about the house at will and getting into everything.
  Melanie has started to introduce Orion to solid food this month by feeding him rice cereal. He was not quite sure what to think of it at first, but now he attacks the spoon voraciously, and will "nurse" the cereal off the spoon.
  With the good comes the bad. Orion contracted his first nasty cold and cough over the holidays. Most of the family had been fighting off the cold since Christmas, and unfortunately, Orion ended up with it too.  He spent New Years eve and the next few days, with an atomizer in his face every few hours. He did not complain too much and took his treatments like a champ.


  What I love about this age, is how interactive infants become. Orion is turning his head in response to voices and sounds. He gets so excited when he sees his mom or myself, that he lets out a squeal, shoves both his fist to his mouth and giggles.
  My favorite game (and Melanie's least favorite) that Orion likes to play is a little game we like to call, "Let's see how far the nipple will stretch." Being the curious little guy that Orion is, he does not want to miss out on anything, even while nursing. As you might have guessed, I will use this tidbit of information for my own entertainment. I like to be extra animated while Orion is nursing. In response to my verbal stimuli, Orion will lift his head and twist it a good 90 degrees while not letting go of Melanie's nipple, at which point Melanie will yell out in pain, "OW, OW, OW, OW, OOOOOOW!"  As this never gets old to me, I will burst into laughter, followed by Apollo and then Orion.  Melanie is threatening to switch my poor, innocent little baby, to a bottle and formula, while warning me that I should probably not go to sleep that night.

  Apollo seems to be getting taller by the day. He is amazingly perceptive and listens to everything that is being said. I enjoyed having a house full of people over the holidays. Multiple conversations would be going on at the same time, and I would sit there watching and listening to Apollo, whom while playing with his toys, will repeat back everyones words and phrases, along with their chuckles and laughs. Apollo is totally oblivious that anyone is watching him when he does this and I am sure that his intent is that no one is watching. It is my belief that he is not only practicing new words, but he is adding to his repertoire of impersonations. This kid has the potential to be a comedian or a bully.
 Much to Melanie's dismay, Apollo is a tireless conversationalist. As Melanie puts it, "Every breath that comes out of his mouth has to be a word or a noise. I am exhausted by the end of the day from listening and being forced to reply to his comments and questions." Yes, Apollo is very demanding and if you do not respond to or acknowledge his comment or question, he will continue to repeat it, each time getting louder and a bit more irritated, until he is yelling at the top of his lungs. One way or another, he will get his response.

      I am fascinated by the things that Apollo knows already but even more fascinated by how he chooses to act or not act based on this knowledge. He has a great understanding of cause and effect, yet he will test the waters at every given opportunity. Upon returning home from work, I always ask Apollo about his day. Not only will he give me a play by play, but he will let me know that his mom got mad at him and the reason why. He will even confess that he is the one that was at fault. Todays debriefing went like this:
  " How was your day Apollo?" I asked.
"It was good, but mama got mad at me." he replied.
"Why"
  "I was crying because I wanted mamma to give me bites of my oatmeal with some big sprinkles and some little ones, and she was too busy," he continued.
  "Did she shake you?" I asked while acting very concerned.
  "No. She just tell's me that I need to act like a big boy now and feed myself."
  "Do you want me to be rough with mama?" I asked.
  "No, but when I was mad I wanted you to be rough with her," he stated.
  "Maybe I will just give her a whooping!" I replied with a scowl on my face. Apollo burst into laughter and replied, "Mama's gonna give you a swoopin'! She doesn't like the dada!"