Weaned and the letter "B"

I am sure that it is painfully obvious by my blog that I am enamored with my boys. They mean the world to me and I am absolutely fascinated by them. They are my guilty pleasure and I am sure that they are in my life purely for my own entertainment. 

  Orion is just shy of 15 months now. He seams to be stuck on his 7th tooth as we have not had a new tooth emerge in nearly 6 weeks. What he lacks in tooth growth, he makes up for with charm. His favorite thing to do lately is to say "No" or "Stop" while pointing his finger; first pointed straight up with his hand against his face, then slowly extending his arm towards you. He has learned sign language for 'milk' and 'more', and his face completely lights up when he realizes that we understand what he is asking for now. Even with all his cuteness, Melanie with her heart of cold steel, has decided to cut Orion off from his milk supply. She declared me the "weaner" and Orion the "weanee" and then exiled us to the next room to fend for ourselves while she stuck her earphones in and tuned us out. 

  Little did Melanie know that I poses special father (or faja, as Apollo and I call me) powers. After a 5 minute fit the first night, 3 minutes the second, 1 minute on the 3rd, Orion was falling asleep happily and after the first night, he began to sleep through the night. Yup, I got skills. It didn't hurt that I would bribe him with music from my iPhone, which he would hold with a death grip up near his head, and fall asleep to the music.

                   ~

  Apollo has been experimenting with expressions, both verbal and physical facial expressions. "Are you kidding me?!" he exclaims, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. It is very dramatic and he has found that these new found skills go hand in hand with sarcasm. He is a fairly bright boy which only helps with his sarcastic personality.  I love having conversations with him as he is actually pretty insightful. I also enjoy watching and liste ning to him interact with other kids. He will often finish sentences when words are left out, or correct words or grammar, and totally does it at a subconscious level.  In a recent conversation with another boy a couple years younger, Apollo, looking slightly puzzled at the indiscernible reply to a question, asked, "Are you speaking spanish?"
   Even though he may correct other kids, there are some words that Apollo mixes up himself. We think it is pretty cute so we let him pronounce them wrong without correcting him...there is plenty of time for that later; Skeleton is pronounced teleskin, vacuum is vaca-ume, and when a toy transforms he says it is trancing-form.  

  I think that Apollo has a descent grasp on language for a boy of 4, and I attribute it in part to reading. Melanie reads stories with him pretty regularly and I read with him a couple times a week as well, however, I spend more time with him playing number and word games than reading. We also work with him on writing and doing word puzzles. It is in these moments that I realize that I could never home school unless it was absolutely necessary. Not because I am impatient, but because Apollo sees me as a playmate and wants to joke around the whole time. We were working on a puzzle a few nights ago that had pictures of different objects and the name of the object written below. The object of the puzzle was to circle words that started with the letter "B". One of the pictures was a hotdog in a bun with the word "hotdog" written underneath. Apollo circled it, along with all the other pictures that started with the letter "B". Hot dog was the only one that was incorrect. I was a little confused by this so I asked him, "Do you know what this picture is?" 

"Yes, " he replied, "It's a hotdog"

"Well then," I asked, "What does 'hotdog' start with?"

"Well dada," came that 4-year-old 'let me tell you something' voice, "it starts with bread."

An angel of destruction

  Not to be outdone by his brother, or anyone else for that matter, Orion is a force of nature. His dark eyes, fair complexion and disarming smile, tell little about the depth and complexity of my littlest guy. He is sheer joy and adventure all wrapped up with stubbornness, determination, and zero fear. He is clever, quick, observant, and ready to take on the world. Orion keeps us all on our toes and requires constant supervision to keep him from hurting himself. Our only break is while he is sleeping, or if we are in the car driving and he is restrained by his car seat. It is pretty exhausting really.

  I love the energy that Orion brings to our lives. He brightens the whole room with his smile. He laughs, giggles, and bosses everyone around with his unintelligible babble. He loves to hug, kiss, and be held, but will throw a fit if you stop moving or even attempt to sit down while holding him. If you keep moving, he will stay content.

  The problem lies in how do you protect someone with zero fear, that is constantly moving and climbing on things. Once he gets hurt and after a breif recovery, he immediately wants to repeat what he just did that got him hurt in the first firstplace; not because he lacks any kind of common sense that says, "Hey, you got hurt last time you did that, you might want to stay away."  but because he is so mad that he fell or messed up the last time thru, and because he knows he can do it, has too much pride to stop himself, and has the need to prove that he can do it right. What a terrific, but dangerous combination. The downside is that Orion bumps his head at least every other day. He gives himself a fat lip or bloody mouth about once a week, and always has a bump, scratch or bruise on him somewhere. We call him Havoc or Destructo Baby because nothing is safe. He climbs on everything and gets into everything.Orion loves to play and rough house and wants to be a part of everything that is going on around him.

  Orion babbles non-stop now. Umongst the babble we have been able to discern a few words and phrase; "All done", "hello", "shoes" (he loves his shoes), "t.v.", and "No!" (while he shakes his finger at you) are among his most used words, not to mention "mama" and "dada".
  Orion is a survivor and is fiercly independant. He wants to do everything by himself including eating and drinking. He is a forager, and feeds himself from the ground, plant and trees. What the chickens can't reach, Orion can. He picks his own tomatoes, figs and plums and eats them. If there is anything left, he will feed it to the four chickens eagerly waiting at his feet.

   Apollo runs hot or cold with his little brother. Sometimes he is very sweet and caring towards him, yet other times, he simply likes to be mean to him. Apollo's favorite passive aggressive behavior, is to mimick Orion when he is crying. It turns out that not only does Orion have a sense of humor, he has learned some tricks from his big brother. Imagine Apollo's horror when he himself got hurt and started to cry; Orion started mimicking Apollo crying; "Whah, whah, whah!" and then burst into laughter.

Chicken Love

  I pick and choose my battles with my wife. Maybe I should rephrase that; I pick and lose my battles. Maybe I am a pushover, maybe I have some bad karma coming my way, or possibly its that I just get zero respect as an authority figure in my own home.   Whatever the reason, It seems that my opinion does not carry much weight around here. My most recent battle lost, was the battle of the chickens.

Here is deal; Melanie has always wanted chickens and we have talked about someday getting a few when we have the right property. About a year ago, our next door neighbor brought home three chickens. That single event started a year long battle that I am sorry to say did not end up in my favor.  For my part, I put my foot down and told Melanie, "If you want chickens, you need to find homes for at least three of our parrots." Yes, we have six large parrots, two of which are incessant screamers that drive me nuts!  I made it abundantly clear that there was no way we were getting chickens anytime soon.

  Needless to say, Melanie brings home four chickens and a small coop from some friends that decided that they didn't want chickens either. As if it wasn't enough of a slap-in-the-face that Melanie brought home chickens, She put Apollo in between us with the biggest guilt trip ever; "Apollo loves his chickens. They are his pets, and he has been asking to get chickens for a long time. Are you going to take them from him and break his heart?"

 Melanie 1, Mark 0.

Yes, I will admit that it is pretty endearing watching Apollo with his favorite chicken, Penelope, but the kid loves all living creatures. He already has a cat, a dog, 6 large parrots, one small cockatiel, 8 fish, hundreds of garden snails and bugs as well as the seasonal tadpoles, frogs, snakes, and salamanders that pass through our yard...isn't that enough? Apparently not! Sure, the eggs are lovely and a healthy alternative to store bought eggs, but come on, these little chickens have poops as large as grade 'A' large eggs... all over my yard... and my patio! My garden and planters have been decimated. The plants have been plucked clean of their flowers, and fruits, and leaves, revealing the very unhappy skeletons of what was once a collection of thriving little shrubs. Did I mention that the chickens already have their own little yard? They are allowed to come out of their yard into mine for a little "enrichment", which must really translate into; "Seek and Destroy".  
  I find myself trapped on Ol' McDonalds Farm, day-dreaming about what it would be like to live in an apartment that allows only one small pet; No screaming birds, no pooping chickens, no snails, and no yard. Like that is ever going to happen. My only respite is to tease Apollo by renaming his chickens; Teriyaki, BBQ, Cordon blue...and then tell him that I am going to eat his chickens.
"Dada! These are my pet chickens! We don't eat our pets!" Apollo protests.
"Okay, but if they stop laying eggs or if they poop on my patio, I will have to eat them." I reply.
"Well, Penelope always lays eggs, and she doesn't poop on the patio."
  I guess I will just have to save Penelope for last.
 

It takes a village

 
Restless and unable to sleep, I left the comfort of my warm motorhome and stepped out into the cool, dark night. As I walk through the towering redwood trees, making my way towards a softly lit, central area of the campground, I hear only a slight, repetitive squeaking to interrupt an otherwise still and silent night. I arrive thirty minutes early to take over my watch of a wild boar roasting over a bed of coals, while rotating on a rotisserie being turned by a small electric motor. squeak... squeak... squeak... The motor strains each time the heavy side of the 108 pound pig, made its way around to the 12-o'clock position before finding relief on the down side.

  In a chair on the far side of the rotisserie is seated my good friend of sixteen years, Ben; eyes closed and head nodding forward and back in a restless slumber. It was 3:30 am. I awoke Ben and sent him off to bed, added coals under the pig, started a fire in the fire pit right next to the rotisserie, and sat back in the chair, still warm from Ben's watch. The fire crackled as I gazed hypnotically into its dancing flames. Feeling drops of water on my cheeks, I looked up to see the tops of the redwood trees, outlined by the glow of the fire, disappear into the misty fog that was rolling in. It was a perfect. I sat back and contemplated the fact that in less than 12 hours, my brother Gooch would be wed to his amazing bride, Kim. Our entire summer built up to this one climactic event, and I was way too excited to sleep.

  It was not long before I was joined by Tassos; One of Gooch's pilot friends and coworkers, who had traveled all the way from Greece (along with another friend/pilot, Ed). I had only briefly met Tassos several hours earlier when he, Gooch and Ed, prepared the pig to go on the rotisserie. For the next hour and a half, I enjoyed some great conversation and some much welcomed company. As the time neared 6:00 am, Tassos released me from my watch so that I could try to get some sleep. Upon returning to my bed, I felt as if the moment I closed my eyes, I was woken up by Apollo and Orion. It was barely light out and my last chance of sleep was gone. It was time to get up and continue setting up for the wedding.

  As most of the food was greek inspired, I  was tasked with making some greek donuts for breakfast on Saturday while the next round of meat was prepped. In addition to the wild boar, we also roasted 2 young lambs on the day of the wedding. Gooch, Ed, and Tassos spent most of their time cooking meat either at the BBQ or one of the three rotisseries. We were well fed, and the food was delicious.

 Looking back a few days after the wedding, I realized what made this three-day, two-night, wedding/camping trip so amazing, was the diversity of friends and family, old and new, all coming together and working for a common purpose. And I mean working in a literal sense; everyone jumped in and helped decorate, cook, set up, clean up...it was incredible. It is how I imagine an old world wedding or even an early american wedding. Everyone in the village contributed in some small or large part to make the wedding day a special event. I think that everyone felt as if they were part of the wedding. Everybody contributed something that made this event all that much better. Everyone mingled and many new friends were made. By Sunday morning, what started out as several groups of strangers, some form the brides side, the others from the grooms side, had become one large happy bunch of friends. Even Apollo and Orion made new friends and both boys had a wonderful time.

  I could write endless stories of what I saw, and what I experienced on this weekend. It was memorable to say the least. Everything was perfect from the ceremony, to the weather. But besides the the fact that two people that I love dearly were married, I was impressed most by the quality of people that surrounded them that day. How everyone worked together as a team. How everyone got along and cooperated. How everyone, for those few days, became part of our own little village.

 

Apollo shared his thoughts about the wedding camp with me on Sunday morning, as we were getting out of bed. He really summed up the feeling that we were left with; "Dada, I want to live here forever, but only if our new friends can live here too. Can you make everyone stay?"

The art of self expression

Its 5:30am, and I am in exile; expelled from my very bed by an agitated wife. My spawn had been accused of pinching, bitting, slapping, head butting, and whining for the past hour. He made enough noise to wake up Apollo in the other room. I could hear him climb out of bed, his foot steps hurrying down the hall, and in he walked into our dimly lit place of slumber;
 "Dada, is the sun coming up yet?" he asked.
  "Take your baby and get out!" came an almost demonic sounding voice from the other side of the bed, before I had a chance to answer.  (Okay, not demonic, but highly aggravated. Sorry Melly) I scooped up my poor, neglected, starving little toddler in one arm, and grabbed Apollo's hand with my free arm.
  "Come on guys, let's get out of here before mama shakes the baby," I announced as we left the room.

We all climbed into Apollo's bed, and after a few moments of rocking Orion, his head pressed up against my chest, he was fast asleep. I leaned back into the pillows I had propped up against the wall, and slid down deeper into the warmth of the comforters; Orion tucked into the nest of my left arm and chest, and Apollo tucked into my right.
  I would have loved to have fallen back to sleep, but with Apollo still awake and whispering every few minutes, "Is it time to get up yet?", and "Is the sun coming up yet?", it was not meant to be. The grey light of the overcast, predawn sky, illuminated the room just enough, that I could look over their faces, studying every peaceful feature, and admire the extraordinary little men that I held in my arms. To feel their warmth and hear them breathing softly is one of my most prized memories of their young lives.
  I tease Melanie a lot about her little outbursts, however, I have to give credit where credit is due. She usually does really well on the random rough night, but by the second or third rough night in a row, she is ready for a little break. When this happens over a weekend, it gives me the opportunity to enjoy Orion (once he falls to sleep that is) in a way that I rarely get to. It is one of the greatest gifts of parenthood, being able to hold your peaceful sleeping baby in your arms.
~

  I am constantly amazed and fascinated by the mind of a toddler. Just by observing them day in and day out, you begin to recognize patterns to their learning and thought processes. Everything comes in waves. That is to say that there is a huge upswing in one area of development, followed by a lull while another area is ramping up. For example; language development can be in high gear one week and they will learn words, sounds, and phrases, followed by a period where the language is put to the back burner while the fine motor skills are on the upswing, and so forth.
  Orion's language development is on the back burner at the moment. He uses one word for everything! Food, water, milk, snack, ball...it doesn't matter, it all sounds like, "Uuuuuueeeeeeeeeehhhhh!", coupled with the gesture of a fully extended arm, hand stretched wide, pointing in the direction of what he wants. In between the demands, there is the underlined babble of nearly familiar but unintelligible words and phrase. Don't get me wrong, he is still learning words and phrase, he is just not actively trying to say new words every waking moment. Today, he surprised us with "All done" while doing the sign language for the same phrase when he finished his dinner. I have to point out that by far his favorite word is "dada", at least for the time being.
  Motor skills are in full swing right now. Orion climbs on and out of everything! Even his high chair. He has to be restrained just to eat dinner, if not, he is standing up in his high chair and trying to climb off of it. We never had to strap Apollo down to anything. Last week was fine motor skills where Orion learned how to effectively eat with a fork and how to stab bean's with a butter knife and put them in his mouth.
  Orion's greatest strength is that he is an observer. He watches everything. Nothing gets by without him taking notice. He acts out everything he sees, and takes note of every item that is set down. His favorite items are the remotes to the t.v. followed by phones. He climbs on anything he can to be able to reach a remote, and once he has it, he will point it at the t.v. and press the buttons. He likes to walk around with a remote or phone in his hands and we are always on a recon mission to locate and recover them. We even found the cable remote control outside, under the lemon tree, and various remotes and telephones have been found in kitchen drawers, laundry baskets, cupboards, and even the drawer at the bottom of the oven.  
   ~

  Apollo is becoming more of a character with each passing day. On a recent outing with his mom and Orion, Apollo needed to use the restroom.  Melanie took the two boys into the restroom at the store that she was in. While Apollo lifted the toilet seat and prepared to do his thing, Melanie had to corral Orion in the corner of the restroom to keep him from touching anything, or interrupting Apollo while he was taking care of business.  Then came that dreaded sound of urine hitting everything but the water in the toilet bowl. In a panic, Melanie spun around to see what was going on.
 "Apollo!", she exclaimed, "What are you doing!"
With his hips going wildly in a circular motion as if he was using a hoola-hoop, Apollo proclaimed, "My ding-ding is going craayaayaayaazy!"
  Needless to say, Apollo got a lesson in what is appropriate and what is not, and then had to help his mom clean the restroom. Melanie was sure that the employee's right outside of the bathroom heard the whole incidence. She avoided making eye contact with anyone and hurried out of the store, vowing to stay away for several weeks until she is sure no one will remember her.

  Upon hearing this story from Melanie, I of course, laughed hysterically and uncontrollably. Melanie was not as amused, however, and blamed my genetics and lack of parenting skills for his behavior. Obviously, this was not meant as a compliment, but I sure took it as such. What father wouldn't be proud of his sons first attempts at artistic self expression. Besides, I am sure he was just practicing writing his name anyways.

                                                                                                                      

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.
~
  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.