800 days

It's official! Melanie has informed me that Apollo is by far the naughtiest child that she has ever had...I couldn't be prouder! That means that my genes coupled with my parenting skills are paying off!!
  I do need to clarify a bit though; it's not that he is a bad kid, he is just very commanding, demanding, and passionate about his opinions, thoughts, and feelings. He can be a handful at times and may need to be brought back down to reality, however, he really is an awesome kid with a wild imagination. But instead of running with the naughtiest kid in the world theme, I want to tell you one of Apollo's more endearing sides and leave the funny stories for another day.
  I can honestly say that Apollo looks forward to spending as much time as he can with me. Every night at bed time, without fail, Apollo asks me, "Are you going to be here in the morning?"
 My usual answer is, "No, I have to work in the morning."
 "Aaaaaaawe, I wanted you to be here in the morning when I wake up," he will reply in disappointment.
  Apollo had worked out the details on how I could stay home with him. He would often say something like, "I want mama to go to work  so you can stay home with me."
   Dont take that statement to mean that Apollo doesn't like to hang out with his mom, because he really does like hanging out with her, he just doesn't get to hang out with his dad as much as he would like. And lets face it, I am the fun one and mama is the disciplinarian.
   I usually respond to Apollo by telling him that I need to go to work so I can pay for our house, cars, food, bills, camping and other fun things. One night I explained to Apollo that his mama needs to stay home so she can take care of Mungie, wash our clothes, make us nice things to eat, and just to take care of all of us so we have a nice place to live. I also told him that his mama couldn't make as much money as I do right now, and that I couldn't do as good of a job taking care of all of us as his mama does. Apollo thought about this for a bit and then replied, "I want brothers (Ian and Aden) to go to work so they can make money for you, so you can stay home with me." Yes, Apollo is a genius, and wise beyond his years...now if only I can convince the brothers!

   I have begun to tell Apollo how many more days until the weekend. "I have to go to work for 3 more mornings", I will tell him. "And then what?" he will reply with excitement building in his voice. "Then I get to stay home for two mornings." I answer. Apollo usually giggles with excitement.
  A few weeks ago Ian started a new job. We were all seated around the table having dinner and Ian was telling us about his first day at work. Apollo listened intently and leaned over to me and asked in a whisper, "Does Ian have a job now?" "Yes he does." I responded with out really thinking about where he was going with his question. "Are you kidding me!?," he reeled with excitement, "are you going to stay home with me now!" Unfortunately, I had to let Apollo down. He doesn't understand why his brother isn't going to be paying my bills so I can stay home with him. He feels that it his brothers responsibility to do that for us. (Like I said, wise beyond his years!)
  Apollo's requests and pleadings for me not to go to work have now turned into a definitive length of time. I am now continually told, "Dada, I just want you to stay home with me for 800 days. Then I will let you go back to work." (Tempting...very tempting!)

               ~

  The days are short now and the nights are long. The fall colored leaves in the vineyards have begun to drop and the green grasses have crept up covering the brown earth beneath the vines. The hills here have transformed into vibrant greens as the rains have breathed new life into them. Every season here has a beautiful color pallet, and winter is no exception. But instead of white snow and barren trees, we have green grasses and emerging flowers. Daffodils are starting to make a show along with  some of the earlier pink blooming magnolia trees. Winter is more of a 'pre-spring' in wine country.
   Orion is doing some transforming of his own. He is picking up many words and phrases. Although many of his words are not yet very clear, we understand what he is saying pretty easily, and we are surprised everyday by what he can say; "Mmm-light" he will say while pointing at the light switch. "Mmm-poop" while grabbing his crotch, means 'Change my diaper!' Not sure why he likes to put "mmm" in front of those words, but its pretty cute. His favorite color is blue and he likes anything that is blue. "I want blue", while pointing at a blue toy.

He will also point at anything blue that he sees and say, "Blue".  After spending too much time in the store on Saturday, Orion became restless and agitated. While in the middle of whining, I saw the 'a-ha' moment on his face. He had made the connection in his little brain on what he needed to say to get his point across; "Lets go."
  I was caught off guard and I thought to myself, 'he didn't just say that.' "What did you say Mungie?" I asked. "Let's go," he said, "Let's go."
 On top of his ability to communicate, Orion understands so much. We can ask him to go and do many things and he will run off and do them; "Take this to mama,"  "Go wake up brothers," "Bring me that toy". Orion also loves to get involved with the the chores, and will be the first (and only) kid in our house to jump in and offer to help out. He will often be right along side his mom helping to sweep, pick up toys, or washing dishes, or will even help in the yard by raking and picking up leaves.
  Our biggest fear with Orion is that he is a danger to himself because he is absolutely fearless. He climbs on top of everything and is unbelievably resourceful in finding and moving objects around to use to climb on top of things he cant reach while standing on the floor. We have to constantly move and hide things to keep him safe. At the same time we do not want to hold him back completely. We allow him to climb on things while supervised. We also use the opportunity to tell him when something is not safe to climb on and will offer him another place to climb instead. One night a few weeks back, I was sitting on the foot of Apollo's bed near the dresser. Orion entered the room, pulled out the bottom drawer of the dresser, stepped up on it and proceeded to climb up on top of the dresser. Once on top, he did his usual inspection of all the objects sitting on the dresser, and threw all the ones he did not like onto the floor. Once he was done he stood up, turned around, gave me his mischievous smile, and then leapt without warning from the top of the dresser, right towards me. I got an instant rush of adrenaline and quickly threw my arms up and caught him. This has become a daily game now and solidifies the fact that Orion is an adrenaline junkie.