a few random milestones for the week:
all of a sudden, it seems, the twits can read. they still kind of suck at spelling words themselves, but if they see a word written down, they can read it. and they can actually spell a lot of simple words correctly. this is not news to IAlsoHaveADream, who periodically logs on to find his IM box filled with messages like “r2d2 c3po 111111111111m!” thanks to me leaving the laptop unattended on the kitchen table. at one point, DramaQueen was annoyed enough that IAlsoHaveADream wasn’t typing back that he went for the phone and tried to call him. unfortunately for DramaQueen, IAlsoHaveADream’s phone number is not a string of 50 1′s.
speaking of phone numbers… i finally did it. it was time. i let EvilGremlin in on the whole “phone number” thing. he’s known our phone number for three whole days, and i don’t regret it yet… so far, so good.
i can play my first irish tune, swallowtail jig – memorized, and at performance speed to keep up with the real musicians at the pub – on the banjo. it requires fingering way up the neck, and isn’t based on standard roll patterns, making it “hard,” as far as i’m concerned, anyway. and it only took me a month. or two. i’m awesome!
monkeybeef is officially drinking exclusively out of a cup. and walking. technically. he can, he just prefers not to. we’ve gone from 1 or 2 halting steps when he’s upright with nothing to hang onto, to 3-5 pretty decently stable steps. the only time he actually WANTS to walk, though, is if he has a bean bag chair to flop face-first onto at the end of it. because that’s both funny, and safe. walking still scares him. sort of. he actually loves RUNNING – off the top of the two-step stairs in the dining area, to plummet to a beanbag chair one of his brothers has set up at the bottom of the stairs. too pussy to walk, but skydiving is apparently no problem. whatever!
evilgremlin lost his 8th tooth. monkeybeef grew his 9th through 12 teeth – molars. his bite means BIDNESS now.
monkeybeef finally figured out yesterday, thanks to a squadron of cheerios race cars and speedracer movie tie-in cars from this week’s grocery-cartload of cereal boxes, that toy cars are fun. his look of confused wonderment as the twits pushed the new cars across the kitchen floor for him suddenly gave way to a droolly, open-mouthed grin as the epiphany struck… he “gets it.” he pushed cars back and forth with his brothers, and laughed his ass off when one flipped or spun out. when his daddy came home, he dragged him over to the kitchen to show him his new trick. as PRM was pointing out that this proved the boy was perfectly intelligent, the boy picked up a car in each hand and banged himself in the head with them. it reminded me of a song… PRM smacked me on the ass for singing it. but come ON. as further proof, i offer you monkeybeef’s other new trick: making himself dizzy.
baby genius … shakes the IQ points … out of his ears.
and this morning, i cleaned out the memories of our phones by emailing all the crappy pictures to myself. they are random as hell…
squirrel hunting:
shooting skeet with texasroadkill, loudmouthsoup and accidentprone:
and then it gets really random:
the last lonely worm in the worm-fridge in the bait-n-tackle section amused me for some reason.
as did evilgremlin’s handiwork:
accidentprone asked PRM to “make me a cocktail, bitch.” that’s a beer. in a mason jar. with a pickle.
do i really have to explain these?
and one last random photo… i catered another resident study session, this time with ethiopian food. i figure the easiest way to do it, rather than force them to reheat stuff in the tiny microwave in the residents’ lounge, was to take the pots directly off the stove and drive them to the hospital. it takes 10 minutes, and the stuff is still hot. it worked fine with the empanadas last time, but this time, a pot of lentils was on high heat until i ran it out to the van. apparently, that was hot enough to melt the upholstery in the back of my van. it was STUCK. PRM actually had to cut it out of the van with scissors.
