Geo-Journey: March 2010

Every parent gives their children nicknames. Most of the time, the children grow up with an infinite amount of animosity towards their parents for various acts done onto them. I now have additional ammunition as I have just been informed that my nicknames as a child were 'Kissyfer' and 'Chrisy-pooh'. I am now convinced that this has had irreversible effects on my psyche! On the other hand, Shana's was a very suitable 'My Little Angel'!!

When Samara was younger, we called her 'Scooter' because of her ability to scoot from one place to the next. Our neighbor in Colorado called Samara '9-pounder', which is a reference to her birth weight. Now, Samara also goes by 'Mara' and 'Niveh'.

We have several nicknames for Shepard…for various reasons:

“Little Brother”- Both Shana and I like the movie “The 13^th Warrior”…mainly because we’ve read the book “Eater’s of the Dead” by Michael Crichton, for which the movie was based…and the Norsemen have nicknamed Antonio Banderas’ character “Little Brother”. I think it's just the way they say it in the movie...

“Rabble Rouser” – When Shepard gets hungry, the boy yells and raises Cain, often to the point of instilling a rebellion in the household. Very political when you have a 10-month old getting the 3-year old riled up and demanding tribute in the form of food at about 5:30-6:00 every evening. Luckily, Shepard like strawberries…and strawberries just happen to fit perfectly in a wide-open 10-month-old mouth. Sometimes we have to stuff them into his mouth…but it works!

“Nugget” – The funny thing about this nickname, Shepard actually recognizes it as his name…often turning around when you say it. This one comes from two origins: 1) it’s better to say “nugget” than “butt nugget”. “Nugget” is the name of the lower-ranked fighter pilots in the TV show Battlestar Galactica, which is one of my all-time favorite shows.

I’ve brainwashed Samara into thinking “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Journey” is a great movie! She runs around sometimes saying “excellent” and playing the air guitar! Also, “No way Bill”! You know, the movie does have historical figures…she has recognized the name Billy the Kid…

Shepard had a bout of ear infections in November/December. It took him nearly 1 and a half months to get over them (after 4 different antibiotics of varying success). His next treatment would have been ear tubes...or so the all-wise Oracle (doctor) says.

Shepard started crawling the week after Christmas!! Development-wise, that’s 8-months old vs. Samara’s crawling age of 7 months. His passion is to crawl over to the cat food pan/watering bowl and stick his fingers in the water and cat food. Sometimes we catch him before he starts eating the cat food...sometimes not. One day we weren’t quick enough and we found him faced-down in the water bowl, drinking! Good stuff!

Samara has been moved up into the pre-K class at ‘school’ and seems to be adjusting very well, although it seems that she is becoming more susceptible to peer pressure. For example, she refuses to wear a certain pair of pants because a kid told her they were disgusting or that her Pistol Pete shirt makes her look like a boy!!! The next step: Edmond Public Schools has a pre-K program (or lottery, as we've been told) that we'll try to get her into. Yea!!! Less money out-of-pocket...

Every child has those household items that are more entertaining to play with than the expensive toys; Shep is no different! His favorite toy is a green, plastic watering can that I use to water the house plants. He loves all the endless curves and the hollow sound that it makes when one repeatedly beats it on the floor. He also likes the dishwasher...standing up by it and grabbing clean silverware etc etc.

The second major snow storm of the season rolled into Oklahoma around January 28^th/29^th. We wanted to get out, so we plopped the kids into the Schwinn cart and took a 2-mile roundtrip walk to the grocery store in the snowy conditions. That was fun; the kids fell asleep on the walk back.

One day, I took Samara and Shepard in to ‘school’ and as I was getting Samara out of the car, she handed me a piece of paper that she had in her coat pocket from the previous day. She said she cut it out at ‘sensory table’. I looked at the piece of paper and Samara said ‘I want this”…for my birthday. The paper was an advertisement from a magazine or newspaper to this:

http://myprincessparty.net/Home_Page.html

I’m in serious trouble….

Shepard had a 9-month check-up exam on January 18^th:

Height: 27 ½ inches

Weight: 19 lbs 13 oz

Parents always want to compare their children…let’s take it to the extreme! Samara’s vitals at 9 months:

Height: 28 ¼ inches

Weight: 18 lbs 6 oz

I wonder who would win the 9-month wrestling match. Probably Shep, since he has 4-5 teeth now (first one came in right after Christmas – 8 months) and Samara didn’t get her teeth until she was about 11 months old…no rules; biting allowed!

Here are some photos from the last 2-3 months: