Guess what?

So some one else in my immediate family is engaged. They announced it yesterday, like 1 month after they announced they were dating (sorry, that was a little dig). I think we're all a little "huh?" but happy at the same time.

I forgot to ask if I could put it on here, so I won't say who, but it ain't Sister, Mema, or me, obviously, since I'm so happily married and all. Let's just say, it looks like quick engagements may be genetic...

Seriously, I'm a pretty good judge of character, and anyone who plays with my boys and tolerates me and Hubby for an entire weekend and still wants to be a part of this family has to be a decent, patient human being.

Let the frantic gossip--I mean, phone calls--begin!

Wall * E

I think Finding Nemo was the last time I took the boys to a movie theater to watch a full price, just released movie. I can't even remember if Moosie was born yet? But I remember Bubba. Oy.

So today, on a whim (an expensive one at that) I took the boys to see Wall*E. I loved it, and judging by their reactions, so did the boys. There was hardly any dialogue in the movie, but that didn't stop the story from unfolding.

My boys remained quiet and entranced, hands over their ears for most of the movie. Every so often Moosie's legs would dance or Bubba would squeal and cackle loudly.

It is difficult for me to watch any movie and not see it through my life experiences, and I won't lie and say that the consumerism and destruction components didn't make me deeply sad. I tried to turn off the over-analytical part of me once the robots got to the spaceship; I'll let you figure that part out yourself.

It was a very unique experience watching a movie without constant talking, and I felt the animation did a much better job at capturing my attention than I am Legend (which I found incredibly boring). At times, I forgot I was watching an animation. I nearly cried during one of the scenes at the end.

If you have visual kids (like I do) or are visual yourself (like I am), I highly recommend it. If you don't want to hear your children say "Wall*E" over and over again in their best imitative robot voices, then you might just want to skip it.

Vocabulary

Bubba has a tendency to make up words. Or use them in different ways. And sometimes, no matter how many times we model the right word or provide the right word when he asks, he just can't get the "Bubba-ism" out of his vocabulary. For example, he still calls "boogers" "burgers." For about one week he had it right, and then it never returned. "Zombies" are "zomblies" (I have no idea why that word comes up at least weekly, but it does!).

May I introduce a new Bubba-created vocabulary word? I think it might just catch on. You know when a dvd has been manhandled enough that it looks like a werewolf got ahold of it and the picture gets all "slow motion" and then jumps ahead? Well that my friends is called a "skatch" [skip + scratch I assume?].

Used in a sentence: "Mom, the dvd keeps skatching!" or "Mom, clean the movie--it has too many skatches."

Pass it on... With credit to Bubba of course. (I like his definition better than the ones on Urban Dictionary.)

First Harvest

After a month of growing, I harvested the first crop of the season...RADISHES! I was so proud, pulling the little purple-red roots out of the ground, cleaning the greens and the root, and then preparing them into something possibly edible.

The thing is, I don't particularly like radishes. I wouldn't choose to buy them at the grocery store. But I decided to plant them since Hubby likes them and I had heard they were pretty fail-safe, so I had a good chance of growing something successfully my first year.

I googled "radish recipes" and "radish green recipes", and came up with radish salsa and pickled radish greens. Radish salsa good, pickled radish greens nasty!

The radish salsa had a little lime in it and I was also able to use some fresh mint from the garden.



The pickled radish greens didn't even taste good with the soy sauce the recipe recommended. I did put some fresh greens on my sandwich, and that worked out nicely.



Hubby has yet to cease teasing me on how proud I am of my little garden. I am not sure if he appreciates me bombarding him at the door when he comes home with: "Eat these radishes, eat them, eat them, EAT THEM!!! I grew them, you must eat them. Now."

I am thinking my garden has too much nitrogen since I have the "mostly green, less root " issue that I read about somewhere. So I wrote it down in my little handy dandy garden notebook, right next to "Radishes are spicy" and "Do not pickle radish greens."

At least they are healthy. And I've heard they help reduce flatulence.

Swimming Progress

Moosie hates swimming, hates getting near swimming pools. Bringing him into the water causes frantic screaming that would make one think we are dipping him in hot oil.

There are several reasons why Moosie despises the pool:
1) He has to take of his shoes and socks (even with water shoes, he really wants to wear his socks)
2) The temperature is too cold
3) The sensation of floating (lost in space)
4) Water may touch him above the neck
5) He may have to take off his shirt
6) He has to allow me to apply sunscreen

We are lucky enough to have access to several pools, one at a friends house and then 3 pools of various sizes in our neighborhood.

I take the boys swimming nearly everyday, and have been making special 1 on 1 trips with Moosie to help him tolerate the water. Three weeks were about sunscreen, pool attire, and just seeing a swimming pool. For the most part, he's been sitting outside of the pool when me and Bubba swim, with his big hat and sunglasses shielding him from the sun, drinking his water, and dumping water in and out of containers.

But yesterday, he found success in the "neighbor hot tub" (as he calls it) and in bare feet nonetheless!




Yes that is him actually smiling, in the water!

Dads

I gave my dad a card today that basically said I was a lot like him, but that I wouldn't hold that against him. I am a daddy's girl. Always have been. I have heard that I have my dad wrapped around my little finger before. I always despised that saying. Dad and I have a strong bond of respect and love. We've both put each other through some pretty rotten things, but we "get" each other I think.

Some day I think I may write an essay about my experience with my dad and being married to a dad. But not today. Too much work to do.

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My favorite memory of my dad is the way he used to wake me up to take me to preschool. He used to sing:

Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more.
Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more.

But the best was when he would change his voice and screech:

Woah Woman, oh woman, don't treat me so mean,
You're the meanest old woman that I've ever seen.

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I posted a comment on another blog stating that basically Hubby being the dad that he is allows me to be the kind of mom I want to be. Watching Hubby as a father amazes me. Seeing him in the dad role has shown me so much of his character, and reminds me of why I fell in love with him so many years ago.

When we were dating in high school, we were getting ready to leave his parents' house. He stopped suddenly and said that he had to give his hamsters their vitamins. First, who gives their hamsters vitamins? And second, the worry in his voice was endearing. I watched him give them the vitamins and then they each got a little special treat too. As I watched, I knew that he would be a great father. And I was so right.

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Reposting the videos I have so far, because without these boys, he would not be the father he is today!

Moosie's Birth (I will probably do Bubba's birth video for his next birthday!)

Daddy's Boys (pictures of boys are from birth to early-2007)

The best toy EVER

After reading this post, you would know why this Youzeum exhibit



could entertain my boys for a long



long



time.




Now if someone can just build one in the middle of my living room. It would need to be metal, with bulletproof glass surrounding it, and some safe way for them to drop the balls in the top shoot (or a level for them to pull). And it would have to be really tall with lots of gears, arms, etc.... more visuals, less sounds. This one is set up to mimic the human digestive system. I'd love one mimicking the neurological system... I bet those balls would be shooting and dropping and loop-de-looping all over the place.

So who's going to build it for me?

Cellphone Surprises

Downloaded some pictures from my cellphone; here are just a handful.

Meet the Machines
I have better pictures on my digital camera, but my camera port is broken. I'm too cheap (or lazy) to take the memorystick to Walgreens to get a CD of them. The boys weren't as enamoured as I thought they would be, but it was pretty crazy. Lots of construction machines in close quarters. They could've watched the "dumping demonstration" for hours though.




Apples

Moose still loves apples. I came inside after getting him on the bus, and was greeted by apple art on the arm of our recliner.



The Youzeum

Since all of my sisters have decided to move to the same town (away from me), I took the boys to visit last week. We went with Aunt M to the Youzeum. There were quite a few exhibits under construction, but what was there was pretty cool. Bubba loves talking about nutrition and doing good things for his body (even if he often refuses to practice what he preaches), so this was great encouragement for him. We were there for over 2 hours (maybe 3), and had to force the boys to leave!

Tracking

I had this Sitemeter freebie on my blog, kinda so I could tell if anyone who shouldn't be reading my blog (like scary googlers and school administrators) wasn't and sorta so I could tell if anyone was reading my blog. I forgot about it until recently, so I decided to see if I have had any odd visitors.

Here is what I learned. Anyone can click on the free sitemeter and see exactly what I see. You'd think that is not a big deal, but I can see latitude and longitude information for each visitor. And I can plug that information into Google maps and see desperate visitors sitting on their toilets cruising the internet on their iphones. Ok, not really, but have you seen the street view deal on Google maps? Did you know you could just paste in someone's coordinates and suddenly you could get directions from your house to the general vicinity of wherever they are surfing?

Yikes. I could see where this would be helpful if you are being stalked or harassed, but dang it sure seems like it would make it easier for the weirdos to find you. It's not exact, but still.

So I removed my sitemeter. You're privacy is restored here. But watch the other places you go. Make sure other bloggers don't have an open tracker.

More my cup of tea

Finally something autism related that doesn't have Jenny McCarthy in it.

"...anti-cure doesn't mean anti-progress..."

Going Green

No, this is not about the Green the Vaccine rally (what does that mean, anyhow?), but rather something more productive to this family.

We have been gardening, and I am absolutely a gardening addict. No doubt about it. It's therapeutic and I feel like I am accomplishing something, so I don't feel like I am "wasting time." I've had some battles with critters (the neighbors' dogs, some pesky rabbits, my children), but things are still growing. And because we did raised beds (well sort of) and filled the beds with "Mel's Mix," we are only growing what we want to grow. So no pulling weeds. How cool is that?!?!??!

I am in love with the carrot sprouts. They are seriously the cutest little sprouts I have ever seen. Yes, I think my carrots are cute. I have issues. But look...they're all feathery and cute like.



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More pictures for the record...

Flower bed, April showers bring May showers?







Flower bed, Summer is coming!






Vegetable garden, The beginning




Vegetable garden, Still planting and building.





Vegetable garden, They haven't died yet, and niether have we!

The Right Words

I was cleaning today (yes, what a shocker), and I came across a card that I gave Hubby at some point.

It read:

Love isn't in the falling...
It's in the staying there

I added the words "No matter how often we change, I'm glad we do it together."

Now I'm not saying we change in the same ways or even at the same time, but we're not afraid to learn from each other, resistant maybe, but not afraid.

Cereal

I purchased some mini-wheat cereal yesterday to see if the boys would like it. It seemed like the right mixture of sugar and fiber, and although I thought the texture would be questionable to them, again I thought the sugar would win in the end.

As soon as I put the cereal in front of Bubba, he said "Mom? This keeps you focused!" and then he devoured the cereal like it was candy (well, according to the sugar content, it kinda is...).

It is just scary how much marketing influences him over anything else. You could seriously put shit on a bun and put it in a McDonald's wrapper, and he would eat it with gusto. This makes me sad, but I really don't know what to do about it.