That Old Black Magic

I am not your average Gen Xer. I only read 2 blogs regularly. I know other people have them, but usually I forget the address and it's such a pain to sift through my mail to find the URL.
So yesterday I am reading one of them and I come across an entry talking about Oujii. Now anyone who knows the Ringmaster, knows that I was ADDICTED to Oujii in late middle school, so of course when the word is brought up, I am all ears, or, in this case, eyes. In reading further, I see that kms refers to a procedure that you can do to "predict" your future children with just a necklace, a pendant, and your bare hands. Well now I am totally focused. What does the Ringmaster love more than french fries, Chipotle and Diet Coke but the mystic arts!! So of course I had to do the trick at my desk (yes, I have a job now...more on that later. Stick to the story at hand. Geez!) So you take a necklace with a pendant on it and hold it so it dangles from your right hand. Let it dangle over your left hand, holding it as still as possible. It will start to move and it will tell you not only the number of children you are having, but their sex as well. It all depends on the trajectory of the pendant: back and forth means boys (apparently they make you rock, possibly in fetal position) and in a circle for girls (cuz they make your head spin-or maybe it's their heads that spin). It will briefly pause between readings, indicating another child. At first the necklace gods were right on-circle, Eleanor, pause, circle, Abigail, pause, circle, pause, circle, pause, back and forth, pause, circle, pause, back and forth, pause...at which point I stopped the game. This far from scientific predictor coupled with the fact that if you already have fraternal twins, your chances for having another set with the next pregnancy quadruple, well, let's just say that me and my little Mirena are BFF.

incidentally, if you would like to read the original post, migrate to http://caffeinatedlove.blogspot.com/
and for something to quell your sorrows in a truly Minnesotan way, go to http://dackyardigins.blogspot.com/ great recipes and great photos.

That Old Sinking Feeling

So the babies love to play in our room. Problem is that the house is old and in order for the door to stay open, we have to use a rubber doorstop stolen from the Graves 601 Hotel fka Le Meridien. Well, usually, one or both babies will take out the doorstop and the the door will eventually swing almost completely shut. They are in there right now, giggling and babbling to each other. Any other person in their right mind would think, "Oh how sweet! They are playing together and having fun." Not me. Apparently I have issues, because I feel like I have been magically whisked away to 8th grade and the popular girls are in the other room making fun of me. Sigh. I know this is ilogical, since these "popular girls" are only 9 months old and can only speak Baby. But still, it's hard to refute when I go into the room and Monkey unsuccessfully lurches for the door to shut it before I get in. Then both parties guiltily put down the mounds of my clean underwear over which they had apparently been dishing. They stare at me and I swear I can feel the braces back on my teeth. Man, this parenting stuff is hard.

Happy New Year and Hallelujah!

Sweet Mother, it's late!!

I know, I should always take advantage of the time that the little animals are sleeping by doing something constructive, but in a sense I am: I am ringing in the new year on the sofa and talking to you, listening to our downstairs neighbors whoop it up and someone, whether it's of the Monkey or Bear variety, let out a single howl of welcome to 2008. So Happy New Year, my dear readers. May it be a pleasant one of great learning and wonderful surprises. Until next time, be well and don't forget to laugh.

Year-end top ten for babies!

Top ten...oh MAN!!
Yes, dear readers, it's that time of year when everyone and their brother makes a top ten list of their favorite things about the year. Usually they are books or movies or music, but as the ringmaster of Casa de Gatos y Ninas, and being who I am, mine will not be your run of the mill top ten. It may not even be a top ten. We shall see as it unfurls below. So here it goes...
The top ten or so things that I have either said, done, learned or experienced this year that I didn't imagine doing, saying, learning or experiencing last year.

1. Baby mittens do not belong in the VCR, although they do fit nicely in the movie slot.
   
2. "No, Sister's ear does not come off no matter how hard you pull on it."
3. Teaching Bear to say MMMMMMM when she eats does pay off when, unbeknown to Momma, she is in the kitchen chowing on cat food
   
4. "Please don't eat that [fill in the blank]!" Some examples are dreidel, Christmas tree, cat, Sister, CD of Ryan Adams you found by stretching to your full height and knocking it off the desk with the very tips of your fingers (although I do admire your tenacity on that one.)
5. I learned that although it took 15 minutes to set up the elaborate baby keeper inner that would rival that of a state penitentiary, the sheer force of 2 nine month olds can break it down and escape in 5 minutes.
   
6. The blind sweep that you learned in CPR for clearing a choking victim's airway also works for getting any number of shredded pieces of tissue paper, fur balls, cat food, and any random nastiness that shouldn't go into babies' mouthes back out.
7. "Eleanor, stop licking the DVD player."
8. In a blind taste test, the left-hand side of the cart handles at the Minnetonka Target taste much better than the right-hand side.
9. This one I already knew, but since I have been out of college for almost 12 years, I had forgotten it: no matter how many times you wash your hands, you can still smell the vomit on them.
10. I never realized that I can carry on a 20 minute conversation about poop.
11. When wet, Mum-mums and Gerber Puffs are stronger than super glue.
12. Our kids will curse us for our capturing a lot of their embarrassing moments digitally, like these most recent photos:

Eleanor with a puff stuck on her nose

Abigail with Chris's socks on

Now that wasn't too painful, was it dear reader? 2007 has been quite the year for us Gaceks, but it's been a great ride. Here's hoping that 2008 is just as fun and interesting. Until next time, peace, love and a lot of patience.

I'll take Popourri for 500, Alex

The first step is admitting it, right? Okay...Hi, my name is Ringmaster and I am a terrible blogger. Not terrible in the sense that I write poorly, although some might agree with that sentiment. Terrible meaning the essence of blogging, or so I understand it is to write frequently, sometimes even multiple entries in one day. LaVelle Neal of the Strib had 4 entries the other day! Well, to point out the obvious, LaVelle, I am not. As you have duly noted, I am doing great if I can get 2 entries out a MONTH. Well, now that I have some time on my hands, I am going to try to be more diligent. That is my New Year's resolution: blog more. More blog equals good. So without further ado, to the five rings that seem to encompass the Cirque du Gacek.

Monkey see, monkey do
So if memory serves when last we left Monkey, she was struggling to make her own path, to claim a milestone for herself. Well, she can officially check that off her list as she is "cruising." No, she isn't driving a souped up Camero down University, trolling for chicks. She is pulling herself up on things and walking around or along them. Officially, I guess, this is called cruising. She's been doing it for about 3 weeks now and is getting more and more bold in her actions. She has been known to cruise while only holding on with one hand, or try to go with no hands, both of which are foiled when either panic sets in and she falls, or she is nudged by another object, either animate (cat, foot of mother, sister's head) or inanimate (climbing box moves, entertainment center door "bites," chair rocks). I have laid down the gauntlet that she will be walking by Christmas. I am still sticking to the prospect that she will hit a major milestone in 20 days, although I think it will be more like standing on her own as she still evokes Riverdance when she is led out to "walk."
So what issues arise from this momentous moment in little Monkey's life you may ask? Well, the fact that she has experimented with shimmying up the side of her crib is fairly significant. Although I have only seen it twice, and she doesn't sleep in her crib (apparently it is electrified or otherwise unfit for anything but short periods of waiting for the changing table), the idea of leaving her in it unsupervised conjures up many frightening thoughts. Her new favorite thing to do is to stand up, hold onto the side and shake the whole bed with all her might. This is a task is much more satisfying in Sister's crib as A) the mattress sits up higher even in it's lowest setting so she can get more leverage and B) it is older than her crib and much looser in the joints so she can really get the joint rockin.
Other interesting tidbits in E's life include being over 28 inches long, having a bottomless pit for a stomach, and graduating to monthly visits to therapy. It is anticipated that she won't have to go any more for a while after this next appointment as her therapist told me last time that Eleanor was a full 3 months ahead of her peers in terms of motor development. She also got a clean bill of health from the cardiologist (for a refresher, see entry dated 07/03/2007). Although she still has two of the defects of the heart, the murmur is gone and a chest x-ray shows normal blood flow to both lungs. Her doctor was very adamant that she was just fine. She doesn't have to go back to see him until she is 3! Yay! Now how am I going to remember that...

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?
And on to Baby B, our little Bear. Oh dear readers, what a momentous few months she has had. She has mastered crawling forward and robotically motors herself throughout the house. We have given her the Indian name of Thunder Mits as she can not sneak up on anything when she is crawling. Her methodical slap,slap, slaps can be heard even over Monkey's deafening squeals and shouts of "KHHHH! KHHHHH!" when she sees a cat, which in this house isn't hard. Abigail's favorite thing to do is laps around the perimeter of the living and dining room area rugs. But her most favorite destination is to the cat food bowls where she grabs a handful and continues on her journey, depositing small amounts of food as she goes, ala Hansel and Gretel. Perhaps she is worried that they won't be able to find their food unless she gives them a path. Or maybe she is setting a deadly trap for any feline she can lure into her midst so she and Eleanor can mess with it. Regardless of the reason, she tenaciously pursues that destination every time she is set free to roam. Boy will she be mad when the gate goes up over the kitchen doorway!
Abigail also has shown great interest in Sister's ability to pull herself up, and has begun to try kneeling and crawling over small obstacles, just like Monkey did when she was first learning. It's pretty cute to see them standing side by side squealing and talking about what ever, "Dudadadadda! KHHHH, mommamamadada KHHHH" means.
The final Abigail milestone is the fact that she has 2 new teeth coming in on the top. These are the central incisors. She will look like a beaver soon. I think her motivation is being able to eat pizza, as she drools uncontrollably whenever we eat it. She is definitely our kid.

Due to a downturn in the mortgage market...
GMAC-ResCap made a business decision to eliminate over 3000 positions nation-wide of which mine was one. Yeah, that's the PC way to say, "I got canned." Effective this past Friday, I was officially unemployed. Happy Christmas!! In the long run, it's probably a good thing. We all know that the familiar, no matter how distasteful, is preferable to the unknown. This was probably the unfortunate kick in the pants I needed to get me back out there playing the job search game.
Also because of the mortgage market, Chris's job is uncertain as his company provides relocation services. He, too, is looking and has some very promising prospects. I don't want to jinx it, so stay tuned for more on that subject.

Sleep soundly and carry a big set of earplugs
Well dear readers, the rest of the Gaceks have been sleeping for a while. Therefore I should follow their lead. Please join us next time when we will explore such topics as how to remove Mochachino paint from a cat's tail and 15 ways to distract an almost 9 month old with just a straw and your bare wits. Until then, peace.

Cupids and Cuspid

Who knew that they were all the same letters?

Of course last month was a red letter one for us; babies turned six months on the 18th and we had our first wedding anniversary. Wahoo. But seriously, it was a great week. We had some other milestones happen, as you will soon read!

Cupids

Sunday, September 23 was our first anniversary. We didn't do much, at least not together. Some would say that that is the true sign of a married couple. We have learned that although it's much nicer to be together, divide and conquer seems to work better if crap is ever to get accomplished. So after a lovely brunch with my parents and the babes, we went our separate ways-Chris and Abigail went home to nap and bond, and Eleanor and I went shopping. Ah wedded bliss.

Cuspids

Okay so it wasn’t exactly a cuspid, but “central incisors” just doesn’t work as well.

Eleanor has been working on getting teeth since Bear got hers in August. As you all know, when she commits to something, Monkey throws herself into it whole-heartedly. Consequently, she had been having fevers, rosy cheeks, grunting, gnawing, chewing, trying everything she could to get those little buggers to come out. So when we woke up on Sunday morning, Eleanor grabbed my finger and shoved it in her mouth to feel the sharp beginnings of the left central incisor, her front tooth! She was so proud. Everyone she saw that day had to feel her tooth, she made sure of it. Since then, the right incisor has come in, too.

Sibling Rivalry

So you may say, “But they are so young! How could there be sibling rivalry?” Well, I would argue that there has been rivalry since they were mere zygotes. Witness Monkey’s mis-shapened head. And now that they are out in the world, the rivalry continues. Abigail watches with raised eyebrows as Eleanor scoots across the floor. If E is in a circle of neglect (aka excersaucer), and I hold A outside that saucer, Monkey will grab and cover any toys within the Bear’s sightline, even if Abigail touches nothing. Eleanor does this in the manner of a 3^rd grader trying to cover her paper from any cheating eyes. Quite amusing. Even the story above regarding the teeth is veiled sibling rivalry. So on that topic, and not to be out done by sister, Bear started sitting on her own on the 23^rd, and then started saying, “hi,” “hey,” and, very rarely, “head.” Balls in your court, Eleanor. Which milestone will you claim as yours?

Postnote: Since this was originally written, Eleanor has learned to sit on her own, too. She also doesn't really scoot, but more like shoots across the floor, usually motivated by the prospect of pulling on electrical cords. As my friend Tracy said, "That's a mistake she'll only make once." She also has learned to say "Momma" and "boo boo." Right back atcha, Bear!

Why is Mommy feeding me knives?*

No, I am not feeding them knives, but sometimes to judge by their looks, one might ascertain that. So far, both babies are very fond of yogurt, peas, green beans, applesauce, and oat cereal. When fed bananas, A looks like if she could, she would gag out her toes. The feeling is mutual for both babies and sweet potatoes, even though they are homemade. Little ingrates! Next conquest: avocado!

Close to close

Nothing much else to report. The weather is getting colder, probably cuz it's getting toward Halloween. I know I say it all the time, but man! Time has just flown by! I swear they are going to be voting soon! I'll let you know their political leanings next week when they are speaking in full sentences! Until then, GO TRIBE!




*My friend BP said this in reference to how it felt to eat most things as a kid-she was allergic to a lot of stuff.

Randomness

It's Tuesday. Tuesday means different things to different people. To Wallace it meant porridge. To the college-aged Ringmaster, it meant tacos. But to the parent Ringmaster, it means babies go to Grandmas! WAHOO!! I also tend to work on projects that cannot be accomplished when babies are here, such as tonight's mission, cleaning the girls' room. It occurs to me that some of you have never seen their space, or at least haven't seen it this clean.

This would be their door. Who knew it would be so hard to

find letters that weren't cutesy? I found these on clearance at

Walmart. Actually only the A was on clearance, but

through the magic of fingernails, I got both for 50 cents.

SHHHH! Don't tell Sam Walton!

This dresser and shelf on the left was mine as kid. Now

on the shelves, I have displayed things that were

ours as kids, you know, things that reflect the childhood of

Mom and Dad. So sweet your teeth could rot, right?

Of course, straight ahead is the end all be all of gifts, books.

Don't worry dear readers, there are more than just those two

measly shelves. There is a whole basket-full next

to Monkey's crib.

And speaking of cribs, here they are, complete with clean

sheets, although that part is lost on you since this is just a photo

If you were in the room, however, you could smell the sweet

smell of Mountain Fresh Downey. And lentil soup.

Incidentally, Monkey's crib is in the foreground, and Bear's is in the background.

They both have breathable bumpers as they are both

devoted baseball fans and LOVED to play catch with their NUKers.

Try to find a NUKer at 3 in the morning when it has fallen behind

2 boxes of diapers and the humidifier. Just try it. I dare you.

Now they can practice their Torii Hunter catches off the baggie.

There it is, the Wall Street of Casa de Gato y Ninas: where

fortunes are made and lost, dreams made and broken. I speak of

course of the the changing table. Many deals have

gone down here. And many a diaper has given its life

for an innocent infant's butt.

This is the other side of the room, with E's crib and the

closet, cleverly covered with an old shower curtain.

See that picture above the door? Chris made that for his grandma

when he was 10. Go ahead with the collective, "Awwww!"

And last but not least, how could we ever forget the most

important part of the room, the Monkey and the Bear.

Don't you just want to squeeze 'em?

So quite the silly if not boring post, but hey, now you know where the magic happens in our house...and what I do on Tuesdays.

Until next time, rock.