Sep 7, 2008

Hello friends and neighbors!

No, that is NOT just a figure of speech, two of the people receiving
this email will soon be my upstairs neighbors. That's right, Fuzzy
and Dante are moving to Woburn (WoooHOOOOO) and we've found a duplex
that, magically, has both apartments available at once, and,
shockingly, has a landlord that seems incredibly invested in the place
and in putting the type of people we happen to be in it. He says we
can compost, garden, paint, and, in general, be our happy little
selves. He's got a gas grill he leaves at the place, a washer and
dryer in the basement, no objection to pets or children or anything.

Yipee skipee.

AND, possibly most importantly, as he is very interested in
conservation he has outfitted the entire house with double insulation
and double paned + storm glass windows.

Our lease starts on the 15th of September, and Fuzzy and Dante should
be getting here right around then, but since Waxor and I have this
apartment until Oct 1st we will be doing a slower move. However, I
imagine we'll go ahead and put our names on the mailbox, so, as of
September 15th, feel free to send any mail to:

15 App Ct
Woburn, MA 01801

Now, on to other topics...

Elliot and I made it all the way to SC and back without too many
mishaps. Of course, on the way down we spent an extra six hours in the
airport due to weather delays, and our luggage got lost, and Elliot
was way confused at the sudden disappearance of EVERYTHING HE'S EVER
KNOWN, but, all aside, it was still a nice trip. Coury was
successfully taken to school (I will refrain from doing a dramatic
rendition of Been dropping Coury off. :))So far he isn't thrilled but
seems to be coping just fine. Of course, I would know if that's
really accurate or not if HE WOULD EVER CALL OR WRITE ME. (Edit at a
later date, he has now called me, and I am on his list to call
frequently, so I should really take this back) I mean, it's not like
he has anything better to do, right? RIGHT?

Elliot made his debut among the NC/SC crowd to rave revues on his
cuteness level, and a sudden burst of shyness on his part. Sigh.
Wouldn't you just know it? The boy would wander off cheerfully with a
total stranger for the first six months of his life, and as soon as I
go to show him off he gets all clingy. Ah well.

Of course, by the time we got home he was exhausted, and we had two
pretty unhappy days until finally I just parked myself on the couch
for the majority of one day and let him sleep on my lap. It wasn't
the most entertaining day of my life, but he woke up a much happier
little guy.

And I, in the meantime, had the extreme misfortune of being exposed to
the show "Date my ex."

Now, I will be the first to admit that, when stuck under a baby on the
couch, I will watch just about anything on TV. That's how I ended up
seeing the majority of "Making the Band 4". However, even I have
certain standards, so it was with a tiny screaming corner of my soul
dying of shame that I found myself watching Date My Ex. This wretched
ambergris of a program is based around two people; Jo - whose mother
must have been a Little Women fan, I can only assume she thanks
whatever deity she prays to on a daily basis that she isn't named
Marmee - and Slade. That's right, Slade. What is he, a Final Fantasy
Character? Jo and Slade used to date, but now he's helping her find a
new boyfriend. Except, of course, that it is blindingly obvious from
about the first episode that the whole damn thing is a set up for them
to get back together. Now, I know that reality TV is so fake it could
probably be used to stuff Carmen Electra's implants, but I at least
think it ought to LOOK like they don't have a script they're
following.

Sigh.

(Fast forward several days, I've been busy)

Elliot is crawling now. It happened this morning. He's been close for
days, but today was the day. I put him in the middle of the living
room floor, and he headed for the kitchen to play with, I thought, his
toys that were right in the doorway. So I kept and eye on him while I
checked my email, and he seemed really happy. When I was done with my
email reading I went to say hi, only to find that he was not, in fact,
playing with the toys. Sure, they were scattered around him, but also
scattered around him was most of the food from Chimbasa's dog dish.
As I came up and said "Oh my god, Elliot" he looked up at me, smiled a
big smile, and then turned back and very seriously stuck his fist in
the food side, swirled it around, then stuck it in the water side,
swirled it around, and then repeated a swirl on the food side. Then
he smiled at me again, as if to say "See, that's what I've been doing,
aren't I clever?"

So now he's much happier on the floor playing than he used to be,
although he still likes to walk a lot. He's getting better at that,
too. If I walk him between the two couches he'll even walk with just
one hand holding on to mine, and the other grabbing things of
interest. Such a clever little guy.

What else? He started taking longer daytime naps all on his own,
without my interference. The morning one almost always is about 1.5
hours, and the afternoon one is normally the same, only sometimes I
have to help him fall back asleep halfway through. Still, it's a great
improvement over the 1/2 hour naps he used to take. Now if only he'll
get his night sleep straightened out. Something, growth spurt,
teething, SOMETHING, is making him wake up ALOT more at night, and I'm
anxious for him to go back to his fewer wake ups.

Waxor is pretty happy these days, because he got his anniversary
present from me early. I got him a Wii Fit, and he's been playing with
it and the Wii pretty much non-stop. Skyward had another "oh crap,
maybe we're running out of money" this past week, but someone is
giving them money for at least another month. We had decided he was
going to go ahead and look for a new job, but since they've gotten the
money he's changed his mind. He really likes working for them, plus,
you know, he really hates looking for a new job, so... I guess we'll
wait til the next time they think they're out of money.

He is having a lot more fun with Elliot, too. Elliot is so much more
aware than he used to be, and Waxor's enjoying it.

And me... I am looking forward to moving in someplace that I can
paint. Since I moved from home everywhere I've lived has been painted
an awful off white color, and I'm pretty thrilled that I finally get
to actually decide what colors I want my walls to be.

I'm hoping that Momma will get to help me paint (this pretty much has
to do if we can get into the apartment while she's here) She's coming
on Wed and will be here for almost a week, to drool over her grandson
and , well, that's pretty much it. I mean, I suppose she'll be happy
to see me, and she might notice Waxor, but mostly I'm thinking they'll
be plenty of grandbaby drool.

(Side note, Elliot and Waxor are playing Wii Tennis right now, Waxor
swings and Elliot stares first at the TV, and then at the Wiimote,
which makes beeping noises)

Okay, Waxor is getting his butt kicked by the Wii, so I have to go help him.