I pay the bills!

Whoa!! This summer has gone by incredibly fast. For not taking any major vacations or doing anything all that fun, we were/are incredibly busy. School is back in session for the teens. Aden is a junior and Ian has started college. In many ways, I am glad school is back in session, but it comes at a price. It was nice to have a few weeks with no teens in the house while they were off on various adventures of their own. Now everyone is back under one roof and the old bad habits and routines are falling back in line. I don't mention Ian and Aden very often in this blog as I fear I would come off as being too crass and over the top sarcastic. I could write a daily blog on those two alone, and I would probably call it something along the lines of; "Really?" in light of the many times in a day where my initial reaction to something one of them says, does, or does not do.
  And as if we need any more turmoil and drama above and beyond Apollo and the Mungie. It is all hands on deck from the moment they wake up until well after 10:00pm. Apollo is fighting some major demons right now. He really misses being the top dog around here, and is very put off by Orion needing so much attention. He is acting out in order to gain back the attention he feels he is not getting. The irony is that he is getting more quality attention than ever before, he just cant stand seeing Orion getting any attention at all. That said, as Orion has gotten older and more mobile, Apollo is finding that he can actually play and interact with Orion and the two of them will have a great time together.
  The days are whizzing by now as we have so much going on. I will divulge more in a few weeks on what we are up to, but for now, I can tell you that every moment of our days, for the time being is booked up. I wanted to squeeze in this quick update while I can spare a moment.
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  Orion is WILD!! He loves to rough house, wrestle, be chased, and startled. He climbs on everything!; In and out of our tall bed, up on the tables, furniture, he even climbs up jungle gyms and goes down slides on his own. He needs constant stimulation and attention. He is incredibly stubborn and although he wants your undivided attention, he wants to do everything himself including eating and drinking, He is very efficient with a fork and is only happy if he can feed himself. Spaghetti is by far his favorite food and is much better when it is squeezed in his hands and then shoved in his mouth and slurped up, so no fork is necessary in that case. Orion has 6 teeth now and not only does he use them to eat but also to bite his mom when she is not giving him what he wants. He also likes to punish her for not serving up the joobs quick enough, by bitting the nipple...he is going to find himself weened if he keeps that up.

  Apollo is my comic relief. He may be Melanie's bane, but he is hilarious to me. I know that a lot of his attitude comes from me, but so much of it is strictly Apollo. He likes to stick his butt out at you and shake it back and forth while mocking you; no one else in this house does that. The funny thing is that in contrast, he is very shy in front of strangers, and often will proclaim "I'm too shy to that person."  Once he warms up to that person he will report to me, "Dada, I'm not shy to her anymore."
  My proudest moments are hearing my words come out of his mouth. His timing is impeccable, however, he is going to learn the hard way that it is not okay to back talk to his mother. There are frequent power struggles and ultimatums between Melanie and Apollo, and Apollo likes to push his mom to the edge before he backs down. A recent exchange went as follows; (Please keep in mind that he is very sarcastic throughout this exchange)
Melanie: "Apollo, you need to pick up your toys please."
Apollo: "Mama, you need to pick up my toys."
Mel: "Apollo! Right now!"
Apollo: "Mama! I'm the boss! You pick up my toys...Right...Now!"
(At this point I am getting some very dirty looks from Melanie....hehehehe)
Mel: "I am your mother, that makes me the boss!"
Apollo: "Welllllll mama, I pay the bills!"

Orion turns 1

  The light from the nearly full moon streaming through the bedroom window, illuminates the room with a pale glow that falls gently upon the face of my littlest man. He is breathing softly as he sleeps. His eyelids reveal the movement of his wandering, dreaming eyes underneath. His features are outlined by the moon glow. They are soft, subtle, and peaceful, yet they reveal little about his personality when he is awake, save it for his extraordinary sweet nature. Orion has one little arm extended up over his head with his fist loosely clenched, his other had rest upon his belly.

  It has been one year since I first heard Orion’s voice, laid my eyes upon his perfect little face, and held him in my arms for the first time.  I was filled with joy and pride. His pale blue eyes pierced my heart when he looked at me. I wondered who he would become, what kind of personality he would have, and how he would affect our lives. A year later and all I can say is that I could not have guessed anything about his personality correctly, except for the fact that he would be loud. In fact, my first impression of him when I heard his first cry was, “Wow! This kid is loud!”

  Orion is a virtual whirlwind, leaving chaos and destruction behind him where ever he goes. He gets into everything…EVERYTHING!! We have resorted to closing off rooms, using baby gates to limit his access to parts of the house, installing child proof cabinet latches, and training ourselves not to leave anything on the edge of the counters. Each day presents a new challenge for us as Orion develops new skill sets. He has now started climbing on chairs and buckets to reach more of the counters. The buckets we keep in our kitchen have flour, rice, or sugar in them. Apollo uses them to stand on to help with the dishes or to help cook. Orion has discovered that he can climb on them too, and reach more items on the counters. Everything is then thrown on the floor. Drinks are always a prized treasure for Orion, and we are usually alerted to the fact that he is standing on a bucket in the kitchen, when we hear his shrill scream as cold water and ice douse his little body and then splash onto the floor. He seems to get drenched at least once a day from finding an abandoned drink.

  Orion’s hands and feet start moving the moment his eyes open. He moves constantly and is always looking for new stimulation. He will even attempt to fight off sleep by shaking his head wildly from side to side while while screaming! Orion loves to scream and is very proficient at it. He screams when he is happy, sad, bored, hungry, tiered, playing, protesting, walking…if he is awake, he is usually screaming. Our next door neighbor summed it up best; “ I can always tell when you guys are home and when you are gone. I can hear your baby screaming 24-hours a day.”   We are trying our best to help Orion find his words now in hopes that talking will reduce the amount of screaming. Besides “mama”, “dada”, and “no, no” he is mumbling “I want this.” It’s a start.

  In spite of the screaming and mass destruction, Orion is an amazingly fun baby. He is always smiling and laughing (between screams, of course). He loves to be chased and squeals in delight while running and giggling. He is adventurous and inquisitive. He loves to wrestle, rough house, and bang things together to make noise. He is quick to give hugs and kisses, and will always greet you with a smile.

 In his first year, Orion has turned our home upside down, deprived us of sleep, kept us on our toes,  captured our hearts, made us laugh, made us cry, and has brought a whole new level of joy to our home.  I will take the screaming and destruction any day as payment for having this wonderful little soul in our lives.

  Orion, you have doubled my capacity for love. Your sweetness, sense of adventure, and playful nature has made my life a whole lot better. Your smile lightens up the whole room as well as my life. I am proud to call you my son.

Happy Birthday son. I love you.