Dancing Without Rhythm

Hey, I just realized I missed my 100th post. This is my 123rd. I'm sorry you all didn't get in on that important milestone in my blogging career. I remember looking forward to it around #53, and here I've passed it. Oh well. I started blogging a year ago at the end of this month. I'll just warn you in advance that I probably won't be acknowledging that date either because I will be holed up in a hotel in the beautiful smoke-free city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It's "take your family to work week" at J's company. We may be the only ones actually doing it. In fact, it may not be official, now that I think about it. But we'll be there. Just in case you are dying to know, I started blogging on Avee's 1st birthday, March 27th. You can mark that in your PDA's and wall calendars for reference. Just don't abbreviate because you probably won't be able to remember what it's commemorating.

I just wanted to document a couple of things from this weekend that really need to be preserved. You know, for the kids.

First, the husband:
I ran to the grocery store for some essentials and when I returned, upon walking through the doorway, J says to me, "Have you been in our bedroom recently?" I say no, a little concerned about what could have happened in the 45 minutes I was gone. "Well," he says "It just smells really bad in there and I can't figure out why." At first I naively assumed he wondered if I had smelled it and may have an idea of the cause. But no, in fact, that was NOT the case. The truth is, he can't figure out why it smells, if I hadn't been in there recently.

J was a philosophy major before we were married and before I could help him find direction. During this time he often used and referred to syllogistic reasoning. So, it's hard for me not to think the above exchange was sort of a revisit to the way he was back then.
A) Angela smells
B) Our bedroom REALLY smells
C) Thus the bedroom could only smell if Angela was in it

I have to say, it's made me laugh ever since.

The Son:
Yesterday at church I played hookie from Sunday School and sat in the back of Primary. I may or may not have been chatting incessantly with a friend. However, I did get in on Benja's name getting pulled from the jar to "participate." He was brought to the microphone stand and given the statement, "I play video games and watch tv all day". Of course I snapped to attention when I heard this. I wondered, "Did they ask the parents to contribute ideas before Primary?" Then I realized that it was just random statement, not necessarily attributed to my child alone. Next the question was asked, "Would this make Heavenly Father happy?" I'm really rooting for my little buddy up there. I see the wheels-a-turning in his mind. They go something like this: "Well, it makes my mom happy when I finally shut my mouth and get engrossed in something for hours on end so she can lay around and eat bon bons in peace, so well, I guess that would make Heavenly Father happy too."

"Yes!" He answers. And he's gently guided to give the right answer. Then asked, "What could we do instead of playing video games and watching tv all day?" Well I don't know nice Primary leader, because that's what my mom does all day! How's a boy to know?

The leader got some ideas from other kids and then tried to thank Benja for his help and he busted out in some impromptu testimony-bearing. I couldn't hear him, but he was clearly making some profound statements into the microphone. Actually, he had the microphone in his mouth, so I'm not sure who was in charge in that encounter. I saw the Primary leader's eyes get big and then she kind of started laughing and I heard other teachers sort of laughing. I had to wait until the drive home to find out what he had said. Turns out he mistook primary for a sort of Couch-Potatos Anonymous meeting and had said, "I watch too much tv and play too many video games, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

There is something so priceless about watching my children navigate their ways through new territory. Yesterday I learned that Benja will be like his father, fearless and free and even if he doesn't know what he's doing, he'll sure look like he does.

The Daughter:
The last week or so has been really nice weather here, and so for the last several days I have dressed Aves in little summery dresses. Mostly for my own amusement. I can think of only a few things more entertaining than watching a darling little girl, with curls, in a pretty princess dress, acting like a hellion. Yelling, "Don'tdo-at!" and "Geh-owa-waaaaaaaay!" and "No way!" at anyone who crosses her. Or exists.

This was her response when I asked her to sit down. If you've never met Avee, it might need some interpretation. All 32 inches, 23 pounds of her are posed here in what we call the "bully stance". You could blow it off because it sure doesn't look threatening. Kind of sweet, actually. But that would be a novice, and frankly, stupid thing to do. Do not touch her. And I'd even say don't be so dumb as to repeat your request to her. At least not until the stance has softened to a more agreeable "I can be bribed" pose.

See, now isn't it just funny to see something like that all while wearing a frilly dress?
The Mom:
Here are some photos for your comparison pleasure. I'm smiling in these pictures, but to quote an old client from my gainfully employed days, Something needs to be did about this!

6 months pregnant with Avee:



















8 months pregnant with Avee

6 months pregnant with Amazon Child of '07

Posted by Angela on Monday, March 05, 2007 at 3/05/2007 | Permalink