Too Much Information

Some things you may want to know and one thing you may not want to know.

Kirk has invented a new word. It is "dinty". It means anything that he finds gross, icky, in his way, or otherwise enjoying his experience of whatever it is he's doing. Typically, it refers to food. "Got dinties on it." "It's all dinty." Mr. b ate all the dinties [toppings] off his pizza and then Kirk was fine with the saucy crust. We are starting to use dinty in our normal conversation.

Kirk got to go in a tower in Missouri. I refused to go to Stupid Ass Holiday Amusement Park Whatever with my MIL and my aunt-in-law and the kids so he did. Such a good hunny. I got to hang out with the boys as an honorary member of the patriarchy. It was a very good time and I won money off them when they thought I'd be an easy mark. Heh. Also, my sweet potato cheesecake was awesome.

We are continually amazed by what Kirk knows about that we didn't teach him. He's had a semi-obsession about beanstalks (as in "Jack and the") for a couple of months. Where did that come from? Near as Mr. b can tell it's a common story on the various Disney and PBS shows like Little Einsteins and whatever. The most recent one is whales. Specifically humpback whales. Did they watch something at daycare? No idea. We tried watching Star Trek 4: Spock Likes Whales last night but he didn't really pay any attention. He was more into playing cars.

Kirk has been "teaching" the cat. He explains things that he does to her and shows her toys and gives her a running commentary on what he's doing. Perhaps this is a sign that he needs a sibling. It seems all the cool internet parents are working on seconds. Still not ready for that myself though.

And finally, Mr. b declared that he's no longer "going to let that little fucker get in the way of [his] sex life." This was after we snuck into the bedroom for a quickie while Kirk was watching Depeche Mode videos on YouTube. That was definitely a first. Unfortunately, I couldn't concentrate. Mr. b promised we'll practice whenever I'm wearing a skirt.

Family Vacation

Whenever the Eiffel Tower is shown on anything (Little Einsteins, mostly though in the DM "Strangelove" video) I point out to Kirk that Mama and Daddy when there on vacation. It seems like as good of short-hand as any. I'm not going to try to explain the Riviera to him when he doesn't even know what France is! But there seems to be an interesting side effect I hadn't foreseen. I've been warming Kirk up to the idea that we're driving down to Missouri for Thanksgiving by telling him that he gets to go on vacation with us this time. And he expects that he'll get to go up in a tower! He believes me that the Eiffel is too far away. But he still thinks that vacation = tower.

Of course there's always the chance we'll have to scrap our plans altogether. Mr. b's cafe is flooded right now and he's bailed 300 gallons of water since 1am (had to "sleep" there, too) and the plumber hasn't arrived yet. Yay. I guess we can always do our Turkey Day chowin' down at Kim's Chinese - Vietnamese. Mmmm, Kim's.

Bubbles on Head

I managed to record this very first songwriting effort last week. I was afraid that Kirk would never sing it again but thankfully, he'll actually do it on request. His very first song!

Sleeping Arrangements

We’re in the middle of the crib to big boy bed transition right now. Kirk’s been all over the place with his reaction to it all. We picked up the mattress on Saturday and he was beyond thrilled.



It was amazing. He was just so psyched about it. We dressed it up college-style right on the floor and he was really into it.



We had a babysitter that night so I could go to the exceptionally amazing Mercurial Rage show (best I’ve ever seen them) and we didn’t know how he’d react to it. But he slept on the mattress and not in his crib!

Mr. b picked up the frame on Sunday from someone I found on Craigslist. Kirk was still pretty excited and was “helping” every step of the way, from hauling in the pieces, to cleaning them, to assembly.



Yet he did not want to sleep on the bed now that the mattress was up off the floor. He wouldn’t even lay down on it! He jumped on it a bit but even getting him to sit on it was almost impossible.



He slept in his crib again that night.

Last night he was once again give a choice between crib and big boy bed. We’re prepared to leave both options up for as long as it takes for him to be comfortable with the new bed. It's not like we have an infant that imminently needs the crib or anything. He chose bed this time. But he wanted me to sleep with him. And it was like doing crib training all over again. I’d lay with him for five minutes until he was asleep or nearly asleep and as soon as I’d leave he’d start bawling. Wait five minutes, go back in for five minutes. Over and over. Only this time he wasn’t just crying like when he was a little baby. Now he was wailing “Mommy!” at the top of his lungs like I was betraying him. Heartbreaking. He didn’t get out of his bed though and he slept through the night once he finally did fall asleep. I hope that going away for Thanksgiving doesn’t undo whatever progress we manage to make before then.

I'll Make You a Believer

Kirk is majorly obsessed with Depeche Mode videos right now. Mr. b is so proud! He used to hold speakers up to my belly and play bootlegged tracks off Playing the Angel, which came out a few months after he was born. Kirk likes most of the songs but seems to gravitate towards the Violator tracks more than any others. He used to be into King Song (“Enjoy the Silence”) but lately is completely hung up on Cowboy Song (“Personal Jesus”). He asks to see Cowboy song as soon as he gets up in the morning, as soon as he gets home from daycare, all day long on the weekends. He puts on his battered $1.99 Walmart cowboy hat and sings along and does the Dave Gahan moves, holding his arms wide, and mimicking Martin Gore’s weird breathing rhythm thing in the breakdown. It’s frickin’ adorable. My mom was a bit concerned by the fact that the video is set in a bordello but it’s not like he has a clue. Someday it’ll hit him in a flash, “Oh my god! Those are hookers!”

Trick-or-Treat

My boys were just adorable as a pair of skeletons. Kirk kept talking about how Daddy is a big skeleton and Kirkie is a little skeleton.



We decided that hats really made the costumes. Who actually likes wearing those masks anyways?



Though by the end of the evening, when Kirk also carried a light saber with him, he was more like a Sith Cowboy Jedi.



My homemade DeeDee Doodle costume was a huge hit with the little ones. Several wee lasses were convinced that I actually was DeeDee and asked me about being on TV and where Rooney and Moe were. I even heard them fighting with their dad further down the street about wanting to go back to the Doodlebops house! Hee!