THE POOL!!

So, Laura Romano got Xander a little pool for his birthday.  Today, now that I have a few things moved off my plate, I was able to dig it out for them.

Watching Ainsley OCD out

At first, Xander didn't want to have anything to do with it. I put him in an there was screaming. Lots of it.  So he hung out on the side of the pool for a while.

The pool has these blow up butterflies that velcro to the sides of canopy thing. Ainsley, of course, fixated on placing and removing them over and over and over.  Xander watched and occasionally messed up her groove. He got in trouble for that from Miss A.

Then I let the dogs come out, and they were thrilled to have such a fancy water bowl. Boomer and Sadie got to hang out for a while, but they ended up annoying us by barking like idiot dogs at the neighbor's Jack Russell terriers.  Annoying Jack Russell terriers. 

In the pool!

At least Sadie's embracing the pool made Xander more amenable to it.

At one point, Ainsley decided it was time for them to dry off...so she got out her towel and started drying herself and Xander off. I was able to get the towel away from her before she threw the towel into the pool.

Ainsley decided to smell the flowers on the porch...and requested I take her picture while she was doing it.

"I want picture, Momma!"

Ultimately, the pool was a big hit with a little boy.  I got a lot of pix of his cuteness.  

Ainsley, of course, threw a *huge* fit when we put the pool away: "WANT POOL!!!"

Geniuses and Gentle Giants

Guess I'll be holding that Mensa application a few more months

I am well aware that I often espouse the brilliance of my children.  Tonight during the Twilight Hour, the kids and I started to watch Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. (I haven't finished watching it, but the kids abandoned it. I'm finding it interesting. Plus Jason Stackhouse uses his real Australian voice in it...so there's that.) Anyway, I went to find Ainsley doing this:

For those of you unclear on the happenings, that's Ainsley, rubbing two sticks against her dresser and blowing spit bubbles.

Sabine the Scavenger
Several days ago, Xander and I were finishing up a lazy dinner, he was getting tired and this happened:

After watching the video, I now see where "keeeetty" comes from.

The Twilight Hour

Since summer has come, I've had weirdly sporadic free time to play with the kids. One such time is what I call (in my head and now here) the Twilight Hour. After the kids get up from their nap, they play for a bit. Then a couple hours later, while Sean's making dinner, the kids and I will sometimes play in Ainsley's room. I call it the Twilight Hour b/c it's normally right as the sun's setting when we do this...

Mostly the play involves me lying on the floor while the kids jump and crawl all over me like crazy chilluns. The other night, though, I brought my phone in the room with me and captured some cuteness.

Ainsley Is Daring
One of her new things is Ainsley's desire to jump off of things.  Notice how meticulous she is about climbing and jumping. 

Xander Mimics His Sister
In the eyes of Xander, the only thing cooler than Ainsley is NOTHING.  After she abandoned the bike jumping for some serious puzzle playing, Xander got his big boyness up on the bike.

Ainsley Is a Crazy Person
I'd like to point out that at not point in this day did Ainsley get a Scarfacian pile of sugar, but this still happened.

Chillin'

Xander's Senior Picture

The Stewart Children At Play

Yesterday, when Ainsley and I went to get Xander up from his nap, she decided they needed to play in the bed together. Hilarity ensued.

They had a grand old time rolling around and wrestling together.  He, of course, used it as opportunity to try to rip off Ainsley's glasses.  She used it as an opportunity to sit on his head and suffocate him.

"I GET HIM!!"

Scrunchy Face

And Then There's This...


Xander has been more and more expressive. The last few weeks he's been making this hilarious scrunchy face. I've tried and tried to catch it on film...and finally here it is!

The Perils of Sabine

Catching up on some reading

I took some video today of Sabine and Ainsley (it's below if you wanna skip the text), and I decided that part of understanding the cuteness of Ainsley and Xander is understanding the pets that love/tolerate them. So, here is the first in a three-part series...Dedicated to Sabine aka Fat Blacky, Bean, Beaner, Ms. Fatty Boom Batty and on and on.




Peril 1: Watching Her Mom Die

Aissa (in back) with Sabine

I adopted Sabine in 1999 when I moved into my non-curry-and-ass smelling apartment that was big enough to support two kitties.  I felt that Aissa, my first cat who ran away about 8 years ago, needed a playmate. My aunt Sarah knew someone who found a litter of kittens on the side of the road—the momma had been hit by a car.  We drove out and I got my tiny black kitty.  She got on with Aissa pretty well.  Aissa hated her and hissed a lot; Sabine promptly fell asleep. Eventually, they fell in kitty love, and Aissa became a fauxMomma.

For those of you who don't know this, Sabine is a fatty.  She will cut you for some food. As a kitten, she once tried to attack me for a pizza. I was squirting her with a water bottle, and she was taking it because she wanted pizza. She had this uncanny knack of doing something bad—stealing pizza, for example—then looking at me with these huge "I saw my mom die" eyes that prevented me from being angry with her.

Peril 2: Sadie

Sabine and Sadie in 2003

Sadie actually wasn't too much of a peril for Sabine because Sabine convinced Sadie that she was bigger than her and could kick her ass. In Sadie's defense, when we got her, Sabine was bigger than her.  Once, we were hanging out in the basement, and Sadie tried to go upstairs.  She stopped at the bottom of the steps and whimpered.  Sabine was sitting at the top of the steps giving Sadie the "Yeah, try it." look. It was hilarious.

Sabine and Sadie stand off

Actually, Aissa took the arrival of Sadie much harder than Sabine did; she eventually took off and never came home. Sabine and Sadie settled into a relationship of a married couple who've fallen out of love but can't afford divorce. They tolerated one another, but didn't really like each other.



Peril 3: Boomer and Her Subsequent Suicide Attempts

When Boomer arrived Sabine protested by hiding under the bed.  Then she protested by pissing all over our couch and house. She actually had a really bad infection that we've treated with meds, but she still occasionally gives us a statement pee...and the vet says that her condition is something like 40 percent medical and 60 percent behavioral (read: she's a bitch).

As we started considering getting pregnant, I had to seriously consider whether or not Sabine was going to be a part of our family. As pet owners/lovers, I believe the pay off of pet ownership counteracts the drawbacks (fur, mess, etc.).  But I draw the line at cat pee that ruins $600 couches and contaminates my children.  Ultimately Sabine shaped up...and I got pregnant.

Peril 4: Ainsley

Kitty!

When Ainsley was born, Sabine decided that the baby was moderately interesting, but didn't really care about her. However, once Ainsley started eating food, Sabine became much more interested.  Part of the conditions of Sabine's continued life was that she no longer was given people food—it contributed to her-pissing-on-everything illness.  So, Ainsley's dropping food everywhere was literally manna from Heaven for Ms. Fatty.

Of course, Ainsley's mobility and desire to GRAB the kitty made her less appealing.  So, Sabine sits up in high places or hides under beds until the Ainsley naps or goes to bed...then she comes out to look at us like we suck.

Kitty! Part II

Peril 5: Xander


Xander is just as interested in Sabine as Ainsley is.  When he wakes up in the morning, she's waiting for treats on her dry sink. He greets her with what I think is his saying, "Keeeeeeeee!!!" Even if it's not, he always gets really excited to see her and grabs at her.  He's surprisingly tender with her—she'll let him pet her even. I guess she favors Xander. Of course, he's escalating his need to touch her—I'm guessing he'll be giving her the full-on Of Mice and Men treatment soon.

While Sabine didn't really have much of a negative reaction with the addition of Xander to our family, she did have a weird positive one—she has now decided that Sadie and Boomer are no longer her enemies. I suppose it's because the dogs don't try to pull her tail. Or maybe it's because the kids'll go for Boomer and Sadie before they'll go for Sabine.  She's working under the "I don't have to outrun the kid, I just have to outrun you." method.

I'm working hard to get Ainsley and Xander to treat Sabine well. I want her to bond with Ainsley, partially because A wants it so badly, and partially because I want Sabine to have more lovins.

Today, I caught Ainsley trying to feed Sabine chocolate cake.  I told her that chocolate is bad for kitties, so, naturally, Ainsley decided to give Sabine her leftover taco salad. Once again, I had to stop her and explain that Sabine cant' have people food. So, I let Ainsley give her some wet food...and Ainsley was thrilled.

Xander's First Birthday Celebration....and Then Some

This past weekend, we had Xander's birthday party. I'll blog and post pics from it later—I didn't take a single picture, so I'm relying on my family to share theirs. Alysse took pictures as part of her present, so I know there'll be some kick ass pics to come.

But on Xander's birthday proper I had to work. So on my way home, I picked up some Dairy Queen and returned to my brood bearing gifts. Xander celebrating his birthday with hot dog and french fries and ice cream cake.

He quite enjoyed smearing the ice cream around in his tray....training for Saturday, I suppose. Once Ainsley saw I was taking pictures of Xander, she demanded her 15 minutes of fame.  Mostly it involved her jabbing at the camera and giggling insanely.

Now that Xander is a big boy, I decided to serve him dinner on a plate as opposed to on his tray like always. At Saturday's party, Reece Merritt came—he's 3 months old. I held him for a bit and had several "awww baby!" moments. But tonight, while Xander ate his meal relatively unattended and moderately cleanly and Ainsley ate solely unattended and cleanly, I had a moment of "ahhh."

Ainsley, again, got in on the picture taking when she noticed Xander was having his moment in front of the camera. I think it's pretty awesome that in this picture, she's 1) stolen Xander's birthday present bugs, 2) she's lined up said bugs, 3) she's insisted on a picnic that she's promptly ignoring.

Also, I've noticed that I post a lot of pics of my kids eating. That's weird.

Traveling

So, we travel a bit with the kids. They're kinda used to it. While traveling, they aren't always cooperative; we have the occasional meltdown.  BUT every now and then they're SUPER freakin' cute while traveling.  Here are some examples:

Laughing at Momma

Realizing the camera's taking pictures

"Want picture, Momma!"

3/4 of a handmade onion ring bag

We went to Dad's this weekend to celebrate Uncle Joel's graduation from high school and Aunt Kellyn's graduation from college.  We had a great visit that will be the subject of a future blog.  But 1) I wanted to start your week with some cuteness and 2) I had to share another discovery.  Ainsley has pica. We stopped at Sonic (and, yes, picked up some ice for her).  She got her chicken strips and tots and mostly ate them.  Then I took this bag from her...the quarter that's missing? She ate it.

Trip Out

BUGGY!

Today the kids and I ran some errands.  While I was in Muncie for class, they were crazy wired and gave Sean a mondo headache.

So, since I needed to pick up a few things for Xander's birthday party and needed to return some things to Babies R Us, we ventured out.  Ainsley was very excited to ride in the back of the BRU buggy. Xander was very excited to chew on his wet wipes.

When we went to the party store to get the stuff for X's party, the cashier gave Ainsley a balloon. I declined a balloon for Xander, and clearly that was a mistake.

While Ainsley was outside with Sean, Xander made quick work of attacking the balloon. I watched him grab at the ribbon for a while before I ran to get the camera.  When I came back with the camera, I was able to record this:

This is Xander's first crawl up on the couch, which is littered with Ainsley's dress-up paraphernalia.  Notice how gifted he is.

Once he got on the couch, I gave him the balloon and this hilarity ensued:

The funniest/scariest thing: while Sean and A were outside grilling, I was inside making the sides.  One second, Xander was crawling under the coffee table, grabbing at a toy. In the time it took me to stir the rice and reheat the corn, Xander had crawled up on the couch and made his way onto the end table.

We're so in for it with this one...