Jillian loves Wesley. And just as much as she loves Wesley she loves Wesley’s underwear. She wants to wear them all the time. I think this stems from the fact that Wesley basically wants to be naked all the time so we compromise and he goes around the house in underwear, but no shorts. She sees underwear, she wants underwear.
If she can find a pair laying around (clean hopefully) she’ll bring it to you, sit down, and then sort of put her feet out for you to put on the undies. Then she’ll go and find another pair and another. She is usually happy at two pairs, but sometimes three is the magic number. Then she likes to get her shoes on. It is quite the look. She is usually pretty happy for some time once she gets her whole ensemble put together.
A few weeks ago someone blew a whistle and I missed it. They must have, because without warning both the kids dumped their current cuddly stuffed animal and moved on.
Jillian was never very attached to her stuffed elephant. He had never reached the level of naming. But still it was the animal in the crib and therefore the default critter. She fell in love with a stuffed, light-up, music playing seahorse on her recent trip to the northwest. Hernando, as he is now affectionately known, was a gift from my brother Corey. Hernando plays a medley of tunes for about 5 minutes when you squeeze his tummy. We now measure things in Hernandos. As in: Jillian fell asleep in 2 Hernandos. He is officially called the “Soothe and Glow Seahorse” and the photo is from Amazon’s site.
Wesley on the other hand was extremely attached to Rudy. He took that stuffed bear everywhere and slept with him every night. Then one day, sort of out of the blue, he picked up this stuffed penguin (from the movie Happy Feet) and named him Baby Penguin. Rudy is now as unimportant as any of the other toys. Wesley is very sweet with his penguin. He cuddles it, tucks it in for naps, bushes its teeth, and has made it a major focus of most of his activities. Today Baby Penguin, Wesley and I played Memory with BP flipping the cards with his wings.
I have to admit I don’t like that little penguin. There are a couple of reasons. First, and it may seem silly, but I feel badly for poor Rudy. He was the first toy Wesley really clung too. The day I gave him the name Rudy, I hadn’t told anyone. Then I asked Wesley to “go get Rudy” and he walked right over and picked him up. And now I feel like he has just been tossed aside. I still tuck him into Wesley’s bed at night, but Wesley doesn’t really care and doesn’t cuddle him. Second, he is a direct movie tie-in. A toy that would have no life if it weren’t for some mediocre film. I hate this kind of stuff. Those lousy toys, carelessly made because they will sell just because of the brand. BP isn’t that bad, he is soft and fairly cuddly, but still it bugs me.
The whole fairness thing probably seems kind of weird, but let me give you a bit of background about me. As a kid I had three stuffed animals: Ted, the bear; Monk the monkey; and Rusty the little boy doll. I loved those guys and still have them tucked safely away. As a little kid I had to arrange them so that each night they would rotate through which one was closest to me in the bed. So that one wouldn’t get to sleep closest to me more than one night. Even when I wanted to cuddle, say Ted, I would force myself to cuddle with whichever one was up next. This probably says a lot about my sense of fairness, equality and justice. And maybe a little bit about my world view when I was as a little kid. The primo spot in the bed? Next to me of course.
For the time being at least, I’ll continue to tuck Rudy in and give him a little hug and kiss, just so he doesn’t feel too bad. Who knows, maybe Wesley will come around.
Tags: Baby Penguin, Rudy, Wesley
Here is the breakdown of what it took to go from brown to green in our lawn.
| Pick Mattock | $30 |
| Fertilizer | $14 |
| Rake(broke our 10 year old one) | $15 |
| Sod (2 pallets) | $270 |
| Sod Delivery | $65 |
| Drum roller rental(2 days) | $25 |
But then we sold our extra sod and pieces for $50. This was a good deal for the guy who bought it. It would have cost considerably more at Lowe’s or Home Depot. Plus it was awesome to see his Subaru Forester loaded to the gills with, just my guess here, 1000 lbs of sod. (The good, full pieces weigh in at about 14 lbs. He had 40 of those. Plus he had 50 or 60 less perfect pieces.) It was a great deal for us. For a few minutes of work posting to Craigslist and then helping him load up we saved $50 and the problem of what to do with 1000 lbs of sod.
Oh yeah. Along with the 20 or so rusted nails, the couple hundred pounds of rock and concrete, and the one red brick we found a 1980 quarter as well. So total cost for the project (not counting the free labor and what will probably be a small fortune in water) is: $368.75
Lately, just the last few weeks, Wesley has gone from never ever wanting to go underwater to spending most of his bath either laying on his back or holding his breath. We play games like “What did I say when you were under water?” and “Can you pretend you are swimming?” In this video he is kicking his legs because he is “swimming in my pool”. My favorite part is how he unplugs his nose before he actually goes under.
Tags: underwater, video, Wesley