"Mama... OOooOOOOoooOOOOO" *

Samson Vonnegut said "Mama!"

And for about 2 whole days, that's all he said. In a ton of variations... soft, **LOUD**, repetitively (mamamamamamamamamama) and the like. I am teaching him "Dada," but secretively give him high 5s when Ron isn't looking, and slip the $20 i promised him into his diaper rim. ;-)

* This post's title credits go to classic Queen: "Bohemian Rhapsody."

A Boy and His Dog

I think it has become widely apparent that Mr. Beegsley and Samson are fast and steady friends. Sam always smiles when Beegs gives him kisses on the cheek or fingers, and Sam never cries or even jumps (too much!) when Beegs barks loudly outta the blue. In fact, just today, Beegs went crazy about a dog outside and scared the cr@p outta me, but Sam just smiled. The other day, i used Sam's hand to "slap" Mr. Beegs in the face, a very popular game for both, and Beegs opened his big pointy-toothed mouth and 'consumed' Sam's arm, to giggles and smiles. I love it. Sam hasn't shown too much interest in Nikita yet. Maybe if he's got a young Beegs to play with, they'll both leave the Old Woman alone.

Grafted Trees

The apple trees we grafted together at our wedding last July, as a metaphor for Ron and i coming together, are HOLDING STRONG! There are even little sproutlings - how appropriate! Ron's friend Dan, the one that performed the grafting at the ceremony, helped Ron graft on some fruit buds. As explained before, the trees we
intially grafted together are what is called "root stock." They are not fruit producing. The buds Dan brought with him are, and we are hoping that they will fuse successfully. We shall know soon enough, but we won't know for a year (or more?) if apples will grow. We have a total of 6 trees, 3 pairs, all in a circle in our back yard. It's fun to imagine them tall and older, arched together to create a neat little shaded 'gazebo' some day.

More Art

Here are two recent projects I've done for Wegmans.

The photo one was easy and fun - AND I got to incorporate pictures of Sam and our dogs! Quite honestly, i have no idea how effective the sign is - i personally think it is too high up for customers to even notice, not to mention it seems a little SELF-EXPLANATORY. One goes to the counter for service. But anyhoo - job security!

The other was more challenging and more out of my "comfort zone." I was going for an old Paris painting kind of effect, especially to coordinate with the product, so i dug out some pastel chalk that my coworker uses on very rare occasion. The first end result did not please me and so i tossed in some thick black lines for drama. VOILA! The outcome really pleased me and its gotten a few compliments. I don't consider pastels a medium i'm good with, but in a rough Parisian kinda way (ha!), i guess i can pull it off.

The Big Dig

About a month ago, we got a letter from the City stating that we had a water line leak on our property and we had to replace it within 10 days. After getting some estimates, we found a guy, and got the work done. So much for the remainder of the big tax refund we got this year. I was hoping i could drag those pennies out thru at least July.

It was amazing watching the bulldozer work. I can really see how little kids are mesmorized by those machines. Sam and i stood on the porch, bundled up (chilly morning) and watched them work for a while. The 'claw' was digging thru our lawn as though it were soft ice cream. What was also incredible were the number of LARGE rocks exhumed. I was really surprised, and the excavator told me that he comes across this kind of rocky lawn about 1 in 60. He thinks the house's old stone foundation was discarded in the side lawn in place of the concrete one now in place. Interesting. The whole job took about 5 hours. Right now, our lawn is covered with fresh top soil and a layer of grass seed. I hope it takes - its been raining the past couple days.

No pics this time - boo hiss

Well, for those of you logging in now and then, i apologize for the lag in new entries. I was a little disheartened to LOSE our digital camera's memory stick on the way to Wegmans to load our April stash onto a disk. It didn't help that i went to the YMCA between home and my destination, so i have no idea where it went. For all i know, it could be tucked into the nooks n crannies of my Ford wagon, but i haven't taken the time to check THOROUGHLY. Alas...

For now, as a pictureless entry, i will update our goings-on.

Sam turned 6 mos. old yesterday! He is steadily eating solids (fruits and veggies and cereal, oh my!) and growing stronger. He desperately wants to crawl; I'm saying this cuz when i lay him on his tummy, all four limbs go flailing in a "I wanna crawl!" kinda way - but he stays put. That still seems to make him happy. We've started putting him in his "Johnny Jumper" bouncy contraption that hangs on a door jamb and he is in HEAVEN! He catches some pretty decent airtime in that thing, its SO fun to watch. I've never seen a kid smile so much and so long when he's in it. If he turns out bowlegged, it'll still be worth it.

I had a fun little mini-revelation in Wegmans today. I walked by a display of kids books in the baby section, and one of them was called "Baby Signs." Re: teaching sign language to babies and toddlers 6-8 mos. and older. Never too young to start, really. This is something that i'm very interested in doing, and i plan to start with some very simple words soon. My revelation was this: it's going to be a REAL TRIP, in the best possible way, when Sam communicates BACK to me. He is "talking" with me and Ron TONS now, of course, through coos and grunts and growls and laughter. But the day that he actually signs the word "mom" or "more" or something else i teach him, i'm going to tell the world!!! Then again, i'm told you can't shut a 2 yr old up. To that i say: BRING IT ON! Ron and i both can't wait to experience the world all over again in a new way, thru the eyes of our child.

In signing out, i'll say this: PICS FORTHCOMING. I bought a new stick and its almost full.