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.

All the news that's fit to print

So where to begin?? It’s been so long since last our paths crossed dear readers! Our summer has been busy indeed, and I am sure you are assuming that since we last spoke, the girls are in college and have 6-figure jobs pending! Well, not quite. They are, however, 5 months old and are delightfully changing in many ways, both literally and tongue in cheekish.

The Bear and Poo-tato
So anyone who knows Abigail, knows she has a penchant for the dramatic. Well earlier this month, around August 3rd, she decided to start crying. This apparently was a great decision for her, and one that intended to fully commit to, so she did. For 3 full days. Let me tell ya, it was GRAND! And to make matters even better, we were supposed to leave for vacation on August 7 (driving to Colorado-see more specifics on THAT adventure in my next post). Therefore, fearing another UTI, we called the doctor, who squeezed her in (no pun intended, which will make sense after you finish reading this section) to see our most favorite doctor next to our regular doctor, Dr. Jones. (Incidentally, we have Dr. Jones to thank for discovering Monkey’s heart murmur. It was so slight and so erratic, that the other doctor missed it.) They took her temp, listened to her chest, checked her mouth and ears, nothing. However, when she had her UTI last time, everything was normal, too. It was not until they did the urine culture that time that they found that it was so teeming with bacteria, it could have walked out of her urinary tract. (How’s THAT for a visual?) So they did a urine culture this time, nothing…still screaming!! So, as a last resort, he had a tummy X-Ray done. That was a challenge. Bear, who is normally not the wiggly one, decided to channel her sister when getting the pictures taken. Luckily, we got one good one that showed a very clear, very large potato-sized poop on board. So after a little prune juice, a couple of baby enemas, and enough Pampers Swaddlers to fill a small landfill, little Bear has lost her internal tuber, but has gained a new nickname: Tator Tot.

Toofers
All you all who think I am talking about beer, get your minds off the bar rail. Not 2 for 1s, toofers, teeth. The other thing adding to Bear’s discomfort last week was the fact that she got teeth, 2 to be exact. AT THE SAME TIME. What can I say, I have borne an over-achiever. So I guess, in a sense this does pertain to beer and 2 for 1s, in that after her getting 2 at once, I needed a toofer special! To make it even more interesting, I think she is now getting top ones. Stay tuned to see if she is able to cut them mathematically.

All Bear, No Monkey? What’s up with that??
Just so you don’t think that I am preferential to Baby B, here’s the scoop on the Monkey. Baby E is making some strides of her own. She now rolls, rolls well, and rolls A LOT! She also have been seeing a physical therapist for her crooked head. When she was still in the womb, as most of you know, she was smashed up against the wall by the big bruty Bear. Therefore, in effort to get a little room, she slid down the birth canal a bit, which caused her head to be misshapen and her to hold her head crooked. This is an actual condition called torticollis. According to torticolliskids.org (yes there is a website for everything), torticollis is most often caused by a shortening of the sterno-cleido-mastoid muscle in your neck. It’s that big one that you rub when your neck gets stiff. The condition is kinda like when women wear high heels all the time-after a while, those muscles shorten up because the aren’t being stretched to their normal length. I read about all the stuff that COULD happen with this condition before her first appointment and there are some scary things out there! Torti-collars, helmets for misshapen heads, surgery, YIKES! Needless to say, I was really nervous for the first appointment. So now, Monkey has gone in for therapy twice, and because her dad has a background in PT and is super diligent, she is much better. When she went in for the first time, she would not turn her head completely to the right. Now she does both and will track a toy from over her right shoulder to over her left. The therapist says that she is very certain that E will outgrow this and will not need a collar or a helmet. Thank GOD! She has special exercises that she and Daddy do, and she is being encouraged to roll all she wants, which is fine by her!
Another super cute development is her vocalization. She never stops talking. She even talks through her yawns. You know how when you exhale during a yawn and make that loud sigh noise? She does that. She growls, she squeaks, she does this thing where she sucks in her breath and makes noise, a little like a gasp but not. She even talks through eating her cereal. Way cute. WAY cute.
The Monkey is also working on teeth, although, having bore witness to Sister’s trials, I think she is a little leery about that eventuality. Can’t stop change, Baby!

Wait for it
So rather than innudate you with everything at once and blow up the system, I will devote a separate entry for the uber-vacay of the century. That way we can all relive it together. Now won't that be fun??!? So until later, courage.