Julian's World
Today is Julian's three month gestational birthday. On Saturday, he was really (officially) 5 months old, but since he is developmentally only three months old, it's easier to track progress based on his gestational birthday. At this stage in the wee one's life, we are getting smiles and giggles and real interaction on a daily basis. There is nothing that can melt my heart faster than a smile from Julian. And the giggles and bubble blowing babbles (try saying that three times) can literally bring me to tears. What a joy he is. And he is living up to his nickname of Spartacus. He is a very strong and healthy baby. We are so thankful to have him in our lives.
At this stage in his young life, these are his three favorite things...
Bath Time
Tummy Time
Grandpa Time Labels: Baby Spartacus
How To Use A Cup
This manual is 4 pages long. No joke. And in English, French and Spanish, for good measure.
This reminds me...on my recent flight to CA, I read
this great article about manuals in the Southwest magazine, written by our very own
James Lileks. Hilarious.
Labels: The Absurd
The Evacuation
The other night, we arrived home from dinner at a friend's home, to find a large fire burning in the pasture behind our home, not on our property, but maybe a few acres away. The winds were blowing hard and the grass was dry. If it was a contolled burn, it appeared to have burned out of control, so we immediately called 911. Then, we panicked a bit. What to do?! Should we evacuate? What should we take? The first thing I said to my husband was "get the dogs." Ouch, that hurt. Then I said, "you take the SUV and I'll take my Bug." To which he responded, "To Hell with your Bug, I'm taking my van with all my tools in it...that's my livlihood!" Oh, yeah, true that. We already had Julian in the SUV, so I'd have to leave my Bug behind. Ouch, that hurt too. Then, we started gathering things from the house, leaving Julian buckled in and ready to roll.
Here is the comprehensive list of what we loaded into the SUV by the time fire crews had arrived and figured out how to get
to the fire (which was landlocked, with no roads leading to it) with tanker trucks:
Smokey and
Cocoa's ashes,
Smokey and Cocoa's photo collages that we had spent hours making,
The framed newspaper photo of my husband and Smokey at work,
The watercolor painting by my uncle, of the newspaper photo of my husband and Smokey at work:
Another watercolor painting by my mom, of the place my husband and I were married,
My computer, with all of our recent family photos on it (and my livlihood),
A small fireproof box that contains our important documents (these should really be in a safe deposit box and this reminds me to put that on my To Do list),
Our jewelry boxes, and
A rock that I bought for my husband at the Jade Festival
Almost forgot...all of the client files I had at home, loaded into my briefcase, and of course,
My purse was already in the car (this contains everything needed to reconstruct our lives)
Ultimately, the fire was put out without incident. Our daughter, Julian's mother, was at work and missed all the excitement.
So, what would you take?
Labels: Family and friends, Near-Death Experiences
We Interupt This Silence...
Is it safe to come out yet? Is the election really over?? Sheesh. What an ordeal. I've had the phone unplugged for weeks now. Now, we pray for our country. And others. What I truly fear now is that our country is headed down a path that ultimately ends with a Socialistic state, something like what I witnessed in its deteriorating stages when visiting old Yugoslavia (now Croatia), in 1993. It was a country trying to break away from the government control that had, in the name of providing for its citizens, taken away the will of its people. A country where nobody was incentivised to work, because the harder they worked, the more the government took. Those who did work wore drab smocks (gray for grocery store clerk, white for food server, pink for the rare retail shop clerk), but not smiles. I know it will take years to achieve this level of depression, but it's hard to be optimistic about the future of our children and grandchildren if this is truly what the American people think they want.
Labels: Politics
