Zip it

There are certain things in a boys life that are in essence a right of passage. As a father, I try to warn Apollo about some of these events when they become age appropriate. It is inevitable that these things will come to pass, and I feel I can lessen the blow by forewarning my boys. This is one such story.
  ~Apollo, when you stumble across this story as a teenager, you will probably be very upset. With a few years of therapy and when you reach your mid to late twenties, hopefully you will forgive me for sharing this.~

  It was a dark and not so stormy night. By his mood, I could tell that Apollo was extra tired. Everything was a travesty. It had been a long day for him; up early, no naps, and full of running and playing. When he gets to this stage, we have learned that the best thing to do, is get him into bed. It was 8:30pm, and normally, this is early for him, but the symptoms told a different story. I took Apollo to his room, and he had brought along with him, his mothers’ Ipad. He was playing a game on it. I asked him to get into his “jammies”, which he did begrudgingly not wanting to stop in the middle of his game.

   It is important to note that Apollo’s pajamas are the full body type with the feet built into them. Apollo never liked these type of pajamas when he was younger. He hated to have his feet covered up. Consequently, we have never put him in these type of pj’s before. I guess that after watching Orion wear the “foot Jammies” every night for so long has changed Apollo’s mind. On a recent trip to Costco, Apollo spotted some “foot Jammies” in his size. “I want these!” he proclaimed with excitement. Wouldn’t you know it, he loves them. Having only two pairs, he is upset when both pairs are dirty and has to wear regular pajamas.

  Once Apollo had his jammies on, he started to play his game again. “Apollo, you need to go use the bathroom before you go to bed,” I told him. Okay, truth be told, I am not that formal with him. That is how Melanie would like me to talk to our boys. In reality I said, “Apollo, you need to go empty your ding-ding.” (Yes, “ding-ding” is what we call...it.) “My ding-ding is NOT full!” Apollo protested. “You need to go and try to empty it anyways. We are going to bed, so you need to at least try,” I replied. After a few minutes of Apollo debating with me, even to the point of almost breaking down in tears, he admitted that he thought Orion, would steal the ipad if he left it in the room. “Then take it with you, Apollo,” I reassured him. Off he went to the restroom, which happens to be right next to his room, with ipad in hand. The door closes. In the meantime, I am wrestling around with Orion on the bed, waiting for Apollo to return. About two minutes had lapsed, and then I hear Apollo yell out in distress, and can hear him jumping up and down. No words, just crying out. This is not unusually, for Apollo if he is extremely tired. The smallest mishap turns into a giant one. What popped into my mind at that moment is that he dropped his moms, ipad in the toilet, and was so upset that he couldn’t think to grab it and pull it out. I am also thinking about the wrath that Melanie will unleash upon me when she finds out that I allowed her ipad to get ruined.

  I race to the bathroom door, grab the handle and burst inside. I scan the room for the ipad, all the while Apollo is jumping up and down wailing. I spot the ipad on the counter, safe and dry. Perplexed, I turn to Apollo, “What, what, what!” Still jumping up and down and a look of horror on his face, Apollo brings his right hand around to his stomach level, and points down urgently. I then realize that his jammies are open and zipped up to his ding-ding, where he caught some skin! “Ouch! Okay, hold still!” quickly grabbing the fabric of this pajamas, and the zipper, and with a light tug, he was free. I zipped him up properly, and scooped up my defeated little man, who crumpled onto my shoulder, and carried him to his room to console him.

  The thing is, I have been warning Apollo for over a year, that that this would happen, and he needed to exercise caution when “zipping up”. I did not offer him an “I told you so,” Just held him while he whimpered and told him that he would be okay. I told him that I did this several times when I was his age and that back then, the zippers were all made of metal and did some real damage. Apollo escaped unscathed, with only his pride damaged.

  As Melanie was not at home when this occurred, I forgot to tell her about it that night. A couple days later, I remembered the incident and began to tell her about it while Apollo was in the room with us. “Oh Apollo, I am so sorry that happened to you. Dada told you that this would happen someday,” Melanie said empathetically to Apollo, “It must have been scary for you, huh?”

Apollo turned towards me.

“Zip it, dada! I don’t want to talk about it!” he snapped.

January Friends

 The echoing sound of songbirds squabbling as they dart in and out of the palm trees, bounce off the concrete buildings and asphalt pavement beneath my feet, as I step out of my work truck. If I close my eyes for a moment, I am far away from here... from where I am standing. If only for a second, it is magic. I block out everything else but the sweet melody of those dozen or so, feathered messengers promising that spring time is just around the corner. It is music to my ears; a momentary transcendence from the urban sprawl and sound of cars passing by on the nearby 101 freeway. I open my eyes and find K-mart standing before me. The usual "riff-raff" standing out front, a homeless man sprawled across the sidewalk warming himself in the late morning sun, and the occasional car racing through the parking lot in a hurry to go nowhere. I take a deep breath, hold it in for a moment, and let it out with a sigh, then head across the parking lot.
  Obviously the birds are completely unaffected by their surroundings. I wish I could say the same. I hurry in and out of the store and find that I am mildly irritated at the otherwise uneventful experience. I am not sure if it was the 40% higher price that I had to pay for the item that I needed, the slow moving cashier, or the solemn demeanor of the store employees. Needless to say, I was glad to be out of there and on my way. If not for the store's proximity to my work and the occasional urgent need of my daycare providing spouse in distress, I would avoid this place altogether.

 The day wears on and fades into night, and Apollo and Orion's voice have been reduced to slow and rhythmic slumbering breath, my mind returns to those birds. So excited, vibrant, playful and happy they were.  It reminded me of Apollo and Orion; playing carelessly, and not a worry in the world to trouble their  little minds. They feel safe. They know they are taken care of and every concern they have revolves around what they are feeling at a particular moment. They are not plagued by the daily news, or the burdens of paying bills, juggling finances, career, and family. It would be nice to be that carefree again, and I believe I would be much closer to a carefree state if it were not for my amazing boys. They are the reason I keep doing everything that I do. The pay off is that I get to watch them grow, and I get to be reckless and carefree through them.

  Orion has become quite expressive, when he is not smiling that is. He has a scowl that rivals that of his mother's. He stomps his foot when he is mad, and in cases of extreme discontent, he throws himself to the floor and has a few moves that resemble break dancing! (Foreshadowing the terrible 2's, I assume). But most of the time, he is happy and full of energy. Orion has a strange relationship with our dog Remi. He is the only kid, under 10 years of age, that can get Remi to play with him enthusiastically. Remi turns his nose up at other kids, including Apollo, but for some reason, Orion has the body language that illicit's a response in Remi that sends him into doggie manic mode. As Remi is an only dog now,  he has become selective in what foods he will eat from the floor or from a persons hands. If its not cheese, meat, or meat flavored he is not interested. But for some reason, he will eat all kinds of things that Orion offers him. He will eat a whole pack of graham-crackers, one bite at a time when fed by Orion, but I can offer him a graham-cracker at the same time and Remi will turn his nose up at me. The irony is that Orion is rough on Remi. He is not gentle like Apollo is. He pulls his hair, smacks him, and even lays on top of him and pulls his whiskers. Remi growls, and at times will give Orion a little nibble to back him down. But, as soon as food is involved, the two of them are best friends again.

 Orion continues to amaze us with what he comprehends and how he communicates his needs. He will do simple tasks that are asked of him because he understands what is being asked. My new favorite words that he has learned this month so far are, 'noodles' and 'Apollo.'
Orion moment of the week: While signing for milk, he says, "I wan' mull!" (I want milk). I do as ordered, pour milk in a sippy cup and slide it across the counter to Orion. A scowl forms across his brow, he shakes his head slightly from side-to-side, "No!...Cocow!" he demands, pushing his cup back to me. Cocow=Chocolate.

   I love the stages that both boys are at, but the fact that Apollo is now capable of carrying on long conversations which adds a new level to our relationship. He wants to know about everything, and has a great memory, but it is the drama and random comments that keep me laughing.
 With an extremely serious look on his face, and an 'official' tone to his voice, Apollo cocks his head to one side and says, "Dada, Xavier's house and school are both broken, so he wont be coming back to our house for a while."
I begin to chuckle, "what?" I ask wondering where this is leading.

"Dada, I'm serious, so you can't laugh, okay?" shaking his slightly cocked head slowly from side-to-side but keeping his eyes locked with mine, "you cant laugh. It's very serious."

"Okay," I agreed, fighting back the laughter, then excused myself to the next room so I could burst into laughter. Of course none of what he said was true. It was just a random story concocted by his friend, Xavier, but Apollo was so sincere because he truly believed he wouldn't see his friend for a while.
 Apollo moment of the week: On a recent after hours trip to my office, Apollo was asking me about my two computer screens and what was on each one and why. I was busy doing something and when I turned around, he was entering numbers into a spread sheet. "What are you doing Apollo?" I enquired. Apollo replied very matter-of-factly "I'm making money."

The Alpha and Omega

 It has been three years since I started this blog. A lot has changed in that time. I started the blog as a way to share my experiences from my perspective raising Apollo, with my family and friends. At that time, I never thought there would be an Orion. One kid was more than enough for me and I never expected that to change, yet here we are with another little miracle turning our lives upside down.
  I originally named the blog Apple G after the name that Apollo was calling himself at 20 months old. It has come time to rename the blog to honor both Apollo and Orion since Orion has unexpectedly joined our little family and has graced the pages of my blog for 2 years now (pregnancy included).

  To understand the new name for the blog, Alpha and Omega, let me explain how we picked the names, Apollo and Orion. When picking a name for Apollo before he was born, we wanted a Greek name to pay homage to my Greek heritage. It was hard to pick between traditional Greek names, and family Greek names. We wanted a name that would stand out but not be too strange. Greek mythology was the key; we found the name Apollo, and it was perfect.
  When Orion came along and we learned that we were having another boy, we decided that we would need to find another name with the same parameters that would go along with Apollo. After all, we couldn't have Ian, Aden, Apollo, and Steve ( or Phil, or Mike, or Dave.) As all three older boys had vowels for their first letter of their names, it seemed only natural that we would need another name that started with a vowel as well.

When we came across the name Orion, it was equally as perfect. It came from Greek mythology, had the same amount of syllables as Apollo, started with a vowel, and since Apollo was my firstborn and Orion would be my last, they aligned themselves with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet; Alpha and Omega. It may sound a little silly, but these are actually all the things we considered in picking Orion's name.
                     ~
  So here it is, 2013; new blog title, new adventures and new beginnings. 2012 was a pivotal year for us. We started the year thinking that we may pick up and move again.
As the year unfolded, we decided to stick around until at least Ian and Aden were out of high school, and look for new and creative ways to change some of the things that made us think about moving in the first place while taking advantage of where we live. As we go forward, I will shed some light on our newest quest as they begin to unfold.

 We closed out 2012 with a camping trip to the coast to celebrate our 8 year anniversary and at the same time reflect on the year that ended and talk about the year to come. With a new perspective, new adventures, and amazing children that shape each and everyday, we welcome the new year with open arms.
Happy New Year!