Little posers

I have to admit, I'm not into football at all, professional or otherwise. The only time I cared about football was when I was in highschool and my friends were on the team and I was a water girl.

But then Jeff married Heather, who is a bona fide Buckeye. She and her family love everything Ohio State, and they love their football team with a love that is pure and holy. At Jeff and Heather's wedding I adopted Heather's grandparents as my own, and they agreed to adopt me, too. And the boys! So Grandma Ruby and Grandpa Leo sent Buckeye wear for Judah and Micah so that they would be "raised right." So here they are, in all their glory. And I'm just waiting for the day when a true Buckeye fan stops me and comments on their clothes, and I will have to admit that I know less than nothing about how Ohio State's doing this season. And then I will go directly to the mortuary and pick out my tombstone, because the Wrath of the Buckeyes will surely descend on me and end my pathetic, non-football-loving existence.

Bug off!

We've recently had an invasion of paper wasps (I think) in our backyard. We noticed them swarming about a month ago so we had an exterminator come out and take down a couple of nests we'd seen, and it seemed to solve the problem. But then today I was about to go outside and I saw that there were dozens of them flying around again. We don't know of any other nests, and they don't seem to be hanging around in any one place, so I have no idea what they're after. Have any of you had this happen? How do you get rid of them? It's a bummer to not be able to go outside.

Let the corruption begin

Here is Judah enjoying an outdoor jazz concert in Mammoth a few months ago.

He's quite the music lover, which makes me extremely happy. He loves listening to music while we drive. And it all started out innocently enough. We introduced him to Jack Johnson at a very young age (like, a month) and found that no matter how loud he was screaming if we put in the In Between Dreams album he'd stop at the very first note of Better Together and then sit quietly and listen. It didn't work with any other album.

Jack Johnson is still his favorite, but he's happy to hear any music at all and sometimes gets impatient when one song ends and we have to wait more than a nanosecond before the next song begins. One day I turned the music down so I could make a phone call. Judah said, "Listen to music!" I pointed out that he could still hear it, to which he replied, "Listen LOUD!" That's my boy. He loves Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn, and John, and recently he's really into Cake. I love hearing him walking around singing No Phone. I can't wait until he's older and I can start taking him to concerts with me. Nathan has flatly refused to ever go to a Cure concert, so it'll have to be Judah.

I'll leave you with a few lines from another Cake song Judah loves. The words are insane, but they're REALLY fun to sing along with.

In a seedy karaoke bar by the banks of the mighty Bosphorus there's a Japanese man in a business suit singing Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. And the muscular German cyborg dudes dance with sexy French Canadians while the overweight Americans wear their patriotic jumpsuits.

Free (almost) to a good owner....

Isn't she pretty? And yet, STILL no one wants to buy her! She's sitting sadly in the parking lot at Nathan's office with a sign on her windshield, waiting....

A lady called me last night to ask about the Mustang. I talked to her for a long time, and we arranged to meet this afternoon so she could look at it. When we got there she looked at the car a little, then wanted to drive it. That was fine, so we climbed in, and immediately encountered problems. I could have told her she would, but I'm too polite. What it boiled down to was: if you're five feet tall, and you weigh close to 300 pounds, a two door Mustang is probably not going to be the most comfortable car for you. The steering wheel was too low, the seat was too far back, and the seat back was too tilted. All fixable, but she was so heavy that the automatic seat controls wouldn't work while she was sitting in the seat.

It took a while, but she finally got all the things adjusted, and of course it was the car's design that was bad, because "It's fine if you have long arms." Obviously, the Ford people discriminate against the short-armed people. She got the car started and we began to drive, and I discovered that she didn't have the first clue about how to drive a car that's meant to perform. She currently drives a Civic, which is a workhorse and nothing showy, and she drove my car like a Civic. Or something. She said all this stuff about liking stick shift and liking a powerful motor, and then she spent the whole drive making disparaging comments about my car and how it didn't have any pickup. I wanted to smack her. Because OF COURSE it felt like it had no power. It won't, if you insist on shifting into second at 15 mph and third at 20 mph, and never getting it up to a decent speed. I told her she had to be a little rougher with it, because you could demand a lot of it and it would give it to you, and she said "I don't like to be rough with my cars." At that point, I knew she wasn't going to buy it, and I don't think I would have sold it to her anyway. She had no idea what I was talking about. Lady, go buy yourself another Civic.

So I still have this Mustang for sale. I'll sell it pretty cheap, but only to someone who actually knows how to drive it.

Poor stripey ball

Micah had his two months doctor's appointment yesterday. Everything looked great. He now weighs twelve pounds twelve ounces - almost double his birth weight! And he's 23 inches long. He did really well while Dr. May examined him, didn't cry at all. But he had to have four shots, poor little guy. And he SERIOUSLY disliked that. I can sympathize. He screamed and turned tomato red, and after he calmed down he slept for the rest of the day. He was so asleep that when Nathan picked him up out of his swing he just curled up into a little ball and kept on sleeping. Poor baby.

Judah went with us to the appointment and had a fabulous time because Dr. May spoils him ROTTEN! He gave Judah a sucker last time we were there, and he's talked about it ever since. So yesterday morning when I told Judah we were going to see Dr. May he started talking about it again. So I practiced with Judah so that he could ask nicely: "Please may I have a sucker, Dr. May?" And he had it down. But when Dr. May came into the room yesterday Judah hurled himself at him, laughed when Dr. May scooped him up, and shouted, "Gimme my sucker!" Holy cats, Judah, you make your parents look like mannerless slobs! Fortunately, Dr. May thought it was funny (it really was), and gave him not only one sucker, but one for Micah as well, telling Judah he had to eat it since Micah has no teeth yet. No arguments there.

Here's my current favorite picture of our sweet baby.

Some updates

I haven't been too inspired to write lately, but it's time I put SOMETHING here, to keep things going. So here are some random notes on things that have been happening lately.

We haven't heard anything else from the SWAT teams in the area. I assume they're convinced I'm not Jessica. I'm also thinking that Placentia's Finest owes us a rather large gift basket from Harry and David's as an apology of sorts, but I doubt that'll happen. So I threw away the letter I got from them today asking for donations to the PD. Sorry, not inclined to support a department that doesn't do its homework properly before practically battering the wrong door down.

Several weeks ago Dave and Julie got married! The wedding was gorgeous and the weather hardly could have been better for an outdoor wedding, even though it rained the night before and the morning of. It was clear and beautiful by 5:00. Every detail was perfect and everyone I've talked to said it was one of the most enjoyable weddings and receptions they'd ever been to. We all had so much fun, and it was so special that it all took place in Dave and Julie's backyard. So homey, and so elegant all at once.

And then we went to Bakersfield two weeks later for my cousin's wedding, which felt a little bit like going to the prom, since my cousin and his new wife are both 18 and all their friends are still in high school. Judah and Micah went with us, so we spent the wedding in the crying room at the church and the reception listening to Judah beg endlessly for the M & Ms that were in the favors. Oy.

Speaking of Judah....he is currently at an age that is so simultaneously wonderful and frustrating. We can't seem to make him obey us consistently at all, he asks the same questions over and over again (especially when he wants something and we're saying no), and the littlest things tend to become huge tragedies. I had a tantrum on my hands the other day because I took away a catalog (Hammacher Schlemmer, of all things) that Judah had been looking at because it was nap time. But at the same time, there is so much that's great about this age. He's learning so quickly and talking in full, long sentences, and saying ridiculous things, and being really loving toward us most of the time. He loves to read and can quote sections of his favorite books. And just yesterday I told him not to do something and he said, "Why not?" for the first time. So I think we're getting to the part where it's "Why why why?" all the time. Sigh. It's gotten pretty tough. We find ourselves shaking with rage and then laughing hysterically, sometimes within the same minute.

Micah, on the other hand, is so much easier than I'd even dared to hope for. He's pretty laid back, and when he's not, he's easily comforted by his pacifier and by being held. He'll sit in his swing happily for long periods of time and will eventually fall asleep there. This is all so new to me, after Jude, who had to be held almost constantly at this age. I never knew this was possible, this having a baby that we can put down without it screaming. It's amazing. He's starting to be awake kind of a lot during the day and is beginning to smile at us and laugh a little bit. It's so much fun.

Oh, and Judah had his movie debut the other night! Two years ago a couple at our church, Rick and Heidi Garside, asked if Judah would be willing to be one of a set of triplets in a movie they were filming. Judah was about three months old and I accepted for him. So on a sunny afternoon in June we filmed a crowd scene at La Mirada Regional Park with Judah and two other little boys from our church. The movie is finally completed, is called Faith Happens, and was premiered at our church last Sunday night. It was really really good. They're looking to put it in wide release in theaters, hopefully soon. It's a movie with a bunch of different story lines, all true, and all taken from the lives of people at our church. It's really amazing. Check out the trailers here. Judah performed exceptionally well, for a three month old. :)

Micah also gets to be an actor soon. My cousin is organizing the Christmas tree lighting at Biola, and asked me if they could use Micah as Baby Jesus in a nativity scene. I hope he becomes an actor someday, because how impressive would it be on a resume if you could list that your first role ever was playing Jesus Christ?

That's about it for now.....

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

So we're lying in bed this morning at 7:00. Nathan had just come back to bed from unlocking Judah's door, Micah was asleep on my arm, and I was talking to Judah, who had come in to hang out. All peaceful.

And then we hear someone pounding on our front door and yelling, "Police! We have a search warrant! Open the door!" Nathan and I jumped out of bed and I grabbed my bathrobe. Nathan had the misfortune to only be able to find a hoodie of mine and wrap it around his waist before we both ran downstairs, where the pounding and yelling was continuing, only now they were saying they were going to break the door down. Nathan started shouting, "We're coming! Don't break down the door!" Someone shined a light in our front window and I heard him yell to the others, "A woman and a man are coming. There's a baby on the stairs."

Nathan managed to unlock the door, and as the door was opening we heard, "Put your hands up where we can see them!" and I saw the barrel of a gun coming straight at me. We moved back and six or seven SWAT guys and a woman, guns pulled, raced into the house and started firing questions at us, backing us over into a corner, asking who else was in the house, asking if I was Jessica. I said no, and that we didn't know who she was, and that we were the only adults in the house. I yelled to them that there was an infant on our bed as five of them were marching up the stairs. I was terrified that they wouldn't see him and would hurt him. We could hear them upstairs and downstairs going from room to room, shouting "Police! Search warrant!" as they opened doors. Meanwhile, the woman was patting me down and a man pulled out a pair of handcuffs and was about to cuff Nathan until they realized they'd probably made a mistake, and that if they cuffed Nathan they were going to see a lot more of him than they wanted to. So they made him sit down in a chair while they continued to search our house, and someone kept assuring me that they'd explain and that they'd get it all cleared up "real fast."

Finally they finished their search, someone carried Judah downstairs to us, and asked if they should bring me the baby. I said yes, but then they sent Nathan upstairs to get him and to get dressed, and he went, giving them all a full moon view on the way. When they all came back down and in from the garage and the backyard they explained that they were helping Placentia PD with a series of busts on gang members, and they'd been given our address as the last known address for one of them who, apparently, looks like me. We told them we'd just moved in a few months before and didn't know who was here before us, at which point one of them said, "Welcome to Placentia!" and kind of laughed. They brought in a document to prove it to us, and apologized a lot before they left. The whole time we were talking Judah was running around between our legs, thinking there was a party going on. One of the guys said, "Gosh, I wish we had some stickers to give him." And another one answered, very gruffly, "We don't carry stickers."

We went outside to see them go, and saw that there were a lot more of them who'd been outside the whole time. When they were gone a neighbor across the way opened her door and stuck her head out to ask if we were okay. I walked over and explained it all to her, and she told me that before they pounded on our door they'd surrounded our house with their guns all out.

It was so weird, it was just like on TV. We're just thankful we all got out of it safely. There were so many ways it could have gone bad, and I'm more scared now that I've realized that than I was when they were pointing their guns at me. What a way to wake up, huh?

The best season of all

It's not oficially fall yet, but here in Southern California it might as well be. Around here, fall begins when the tourists go home and the heat breaks. From what I hear, I spent one of the hottest days of the summer, Labor Day, in the hospital and I should thank my lucky stars for that. Everyone kept telling me how miserable it was outside. When we took Micah home the next day it was a little cooler, and by the end of the week it felt positively fall-ish outside. And it's been like that since, just a little warmer on some days. The evenings are even a little cool.

But here's the real proof of fall: we went to Ruby's on the Balboa Pier for lunch today and there was hardly anyone there. Yes! I love it when school starts and everyone goes back to the midwest or wherever they came from and we can reclaim the beach. The weather was perfect, just a little breezy and sunny and clear, and the ocean was pretty calm. We sat at a table near the open door while we ate. It was Micah's first trip to Ruby's! He slept through the whole thing in his carseat, propped up by the window with the sun on his toes. The rest of us ate delicious food and played with Judah's menu, which was in the shape of a vintage Corvette. After lunch Nathan took Judah to the playground to play on the slide for a while, and then we headed home. It was so nice and relaxing and quiet. The beach is definitely the best in the fall.

Presenting

Micah Kenneth Cowell was born on September 3 at 12:56 am. He weighed 6 lbs 10 ozs and was 19.5 inches long.

I guess he thought it would be funny to come on Labor Day.

Micah's doing really well, and the rest of us are too, so far. Nathan and I are really tired... but I guess that's what you expect. Judah's doing great and loves his new baby brother and is very gentle and caring with him. He celebrated by wandering out the front door of our condo yesterday evening when no one was looking and taking a walk around the complex. We sent out a little search party and found him before he got too far, fortunately. Then he was awesome and went to bed after getting up only once, and actually slept until 6:45 this morning. It was wonderful.

More pictures and updates later, it's feeding time again and Judah's begging to watch a funny cats video on You Tube. Ha!

Waving goodbye to my sanity.....again....

I thought I would at least have until the baby was born before I started existing in a fog for a while again. But that's turned out not to be the case. Judah is totally putting us through it right now.

The sleep issues seem to be never ending. I've talked to my friends. Most of them are like, "No, we didn't really have any problems switching to a bed. We had to spank him a few times and then he got the picture and has stayed in bed ever since." I've heard of only two other kids that are as strong willed as Judah in this area, and in both cases their parents ended up locking their child's bedroom door from the outside and letting the kid cry for hours until they're exhausted and fall asleep on the floor. This sounds totally cruel, I know, but I also know that to some kids (Judah) there is simply nothing else that makes sense. Rewards don't matter, punishment doesn't matter, the loss of privileges doesn't matter, pain doesn't matter. The only thing that seems to matter to him is total separation from us. Any attention at all, even us standing silently in the doorway and pointing to the bed until he climbs back in, is enough to make him get up for more. So I'm almost at the door locking point.

That being said, he's improved a lot from the nights he was getting up 65 times in a row. He usually goes down now pretty easily for Nathan, only getting up three or four times, but he won't really do it for me. Naptimes are a battle when Nathan's not home. But the real kicker is the morning wake-up time. For whatever reason, since he's moved to a bed, Judah is up at 5:15 every morning without fail. And won't go back to sleep. Before, when he was in the crib, his normal time was between 7:30 and 8. Then for a little bit after the great move it was about 6:30 or 6:45 and I complained and whined. And now I'd give years off my life to have him sleep until 6:30. 5:15 is a hideous time to be awake. And then there was last night, when he woke up at 3:50 and never went back to sleep at all.

Do you know what it does to a parent's mind to start the day, against your will, before 4 am? I spent the day fighting a series of nervous breakdowns. There's a reason prisoners of war are sometimes tortured with sleep deprivation. It will totally break you.

And now Judah has croup. Croup. Seriously. I thought that went out with the 1800s. At least now I know why he was up so early this morning. He's got a high fever and a barking cough and a sore throat, poor little guy. It's truly pathetic. He actually consented to sit still on my lap for like ten minutes this afternoon. He was so worn out. Tonight when we put him to bed he was literally begging for sleep. For the first time in weeks, maybe months, we put him down, left the room, and haven't heard from him since. I'm hoping this sickness is a blessing in disguise that will re-set his sleeping habits, back to something a little more acceptable to everyone.

So, anyone out there have any suggestions? Did your kids do this? Know any kids that did? Is there any hope that I'll stop being perpetually tired in the next five years?