VERY advanced

I think our baby is learning how to whistle...

How are YOU?

I overheard an interesting exchange yesterday when I was paying for purchases at the student store. It went like this:

Cashier - "Hey! How are you doing? What's new with you?"
Customer (whom she obviously knew) - "Oh, not much. How about yourself?"
Cashier - "Oh, I'm fine. And you?"
Customer - "Great. How are you doing?"
Cashier - "Uh...that'll be $6.98. Do you need a bag for that?"

I started laughing a bit. I wondered if they realized that they had each asked the other how they were doing twice and answered the other about how they were doing twice. And I realized that I do the same thing myself. How often do I ask someone how they're doing without listening to (...or maybe even caring) about the response? And how often do I just toss out "fine" as a response without really thinking about if I'm really fine at that moment? I think I want to make it a goal to listen to the answers of others when I ask how they're doing and answer honestly when asked. So test me out next time I see you.

Clarice

Fun with cherries

The other day I was driving home and I stopped next to one of the folks you see in the medians of the roads selling fruit. It was a particularly hot day. She was looking forlorn, and I was craving fruit, so I bought a bag of cherries. It turned out to be a rather unique bag of cherries. There were at least a dozen "special ones" in the bag. Makes you wonder what kind of chemicals the cherries got. We ended up turning it into a Rorshach test of sorts. It was more fun than looking for shapes in the clouds.


We thought the upper left one looked like a cherry with a cucumber...or perhaps a person with a nose like a muppet. The upper middle one looked like it had a jalapeno pepper attached. We also thought the whole thing looked like a bird of some sort. The upper right one was a cherry with a heart on the outside. The lower left was just siamese twin cherries...or a butt. And then there was the one on the lower right.... What do you see?

Clarice

Growing up

Jackson slept through the night last night. Actually, that makes it 4 nights in a row. We put him in his crib between 8:30 and 9:00 PM, turned off the light, and walked away. No crying, no fussing. Just the sound of a thumb being sucked, followed by silent slumber until 7:00 AM, when he woke us up with his morning call and morning smile. I was ecstatic at first. Thank you Babywise!! Continous sleep!!! But now I'm a little sad. Feeding time was my special time with him. And it used to happen 7-9 times a day. Don't get me wrong. I'm not asking for middle of the night awakenings any more, but now he's down to 4-5 feedings. And because I'm back at work now, more than half of those feedings are with a bottle...with Ian. Meanwhile, I feed "the pump." I think I'm also sad because I'm struck with the reality that my baby's growing up. Next thing you know, I'll be doing the mother-son dance with him at his wedding. He's only 3.5 months old and he's already outgrown some of his endearing newborn behaviors. No more mildly squeaking monkey. Now he's a screaming banshee. No more endearingly dependent floppy head. Now he's a bobble head. No more burrowing into our necks to sleep. Now he wants to crane his head around to look at everything. No more pacifier checks every 5 minutes. Now he finds his own thumb. No more startling assplosions to let us know when to change his diaper. Now he stealthily unloads his bowels right before we enter public places, or worse...closed quarters. Everyone talks about how fast they grow up. I just didn't expect to be agreeing with the fact so soon.

Clarice

Jealous Cousin

Jackson met his "cousins" Peanut and Olivia for the first time a few weeks ago. Peanut and Olivia are my brother Randy and sister-in-law Amy's chihuahuas. It was such a fun thing to witness. Jackson has been demonstrating an interest in seeing new things. I don't know what he thought of the dogs, but he kept staring at them.



I think they were rather intrigued with him also. Peanut's always mellow, so he plopped down next to Jackson. Olivia's more hyper, but she paused for a few minutes in her usual romping around to stare at him for a spell.

Peanut and Olivia came back to visit again last week. We couldn't wait to see how Jackson would react again. Turns out Olivia's reaction was more interesting. You see, Olivia's always been a significant center of attention. Randy adopted Peanut from Amy's parents when he was already 9 or 10 years old and slowing down a bit. But Olivia was born into the family and has always been such a comic figure that we've enjoyed countless hours petting her and vying for her attention.

Then came Jackson... The first human grandchild. On this visit last week, Olivia pranced in as she always does, running around in circles, greeting everyone. But not long into the visit, she ran to Amy and hid her face in Amy's neck. Every time we brought Jackson around to get a better view of her, she turned away, refusing to make eye contact with him. Apparently she pouts like this whenever she's not the center of attention. Who knew dogs were like this too. Well at least we've had a preview of sibling rivalry.

Clarice