Frankie vs. the Family

We have a psycho cat. His name is Frankie. Frankie is a high-maintenance diva and wants things done his way. He is the feline version of Stewie from Family Guy and tries to kill me on an almost daily basis.

We have a sweet bulldog, Truman, who isn't so great at figuring out things. He's not dumb, he just can't outsmart the evil genius cat.

Pre-Evan, the second bedroom in our condo was the guest room and, when unoccupied, was Frankie's room. Well, once we found out Evan was on his way, we reclaimed the guest room and forbid Frankie from going in there. Plus, we took away his bed. This led to a few weeks of waking up each morning with a "present" laying outside of the litter box. Frank's way of letting us know how much he appreciated being evicted from his favorite afternoon napping spot.

After a fairly rough week with Evan - he had been battling a cold and a blocked tear duct again - he was back to sleeping through the night. Saturday morning, I woke briefly at 6:00 am and went back to sleep. Remember the saying, "Sleep when the baby sleeps?" This mostly applies to opportunities to sleep in on Saturday morning.

Truman sleeps in bed with us and is always the vigilant protector of the house. Any strange noises are scared away by a fierce growling and wuffing. Truman also is a fan of sleeping in and frequent naps.

Well, Frankie does not believe in sleeping in. He believes he is entitled to our room after 7 am and does everything he can to wake us up and get us moving out of the room so he can take it over. He use to come in and just yap - loudly. But after being nailed a couple of times with a swiftly thrown slipper, he changed tactics.

Now, he sits on the outside of the bedroom door and scratches on it - even though it is never fully closed or latched. This scratching wakes up Truman who gets upset and starts barking, which wakes everyone else up - including Evan. So, we all get up and start our day.

In retaliation, I am considering shutting the door behind us on our way out so the cat can't go in there. However, this will likely lead to more "presents" on the floor, so I am conceding victory for now. Damn cat.

The Rookie and The Natural

First, apologies for not writing in FOREVER. I don't have any real good excuse. I just didn't feel like writing and didn't really have anything I thought was relevant enough to share.

Well, Evan is starting to move. He is successfully army crawling now and just a big ol' wiggle worm in general. Over the weekend, I was trying to clean up a catastrophically bad diaper. But Evan is very much in explore-and-see-and-touch-and-crawl-and-move every chance he gets mode. Every time I laid him down on the changing table he would flip over and try to dive off. I had to use the straps to restrain him, but that just kept him from rolling off the table.

He's also teething. He's waking up several times a night and Brian and I are both exhausted as we have not had to build up an immunity to nights of interrupted sleep yet. I know, Evan has spoiled us. And we both have been battling colds.

So, I'm getting very frustrated. You have to pin the shoulders down. If the shoulders turn, the whole body turns. But you can't change an EPA Superfund Site, hazardous waste zone of a diaper with one hand. I thought, maybe this is a learning opportunity. Evan needs to learn the word "no." He didn't. So we fought and wrestled all day on Saturday and all day on Sunday when it came time to change the diapers, leaving us both frustrated and irritated.

I came home from work on Monday and Brian was changing Evan. He was not fighting or wrestling with him - and Evan was laying perfectly still and happy on his back. No wiggling. No protesting. He was a perfect little angel boy.

Brian gave him a toy to play with while changing him. Distraction vs. Command and Control. So simple. But this just goes to show that while I am learning how to be a parent, Brian seems to be a natural. Good thing one of us is!

But he is also your typical Dad who is proud of his boy for things that Moms would not be proud of. For example. When I was wrestling with Evan and trying to get him cleaned up, I had him uncovered for far too long. I heard a bzzzzzzz noise and looked up from the poop. He was peeing. The pee flew through the air a good 3 feet and was bouncing off his bedroom door. When Brian returned home later that night, I told him about the fiasco and he held up Evan, impressed with his long-distance peeing capabilities and said, "Good job, Buddy!"

Boys.

While traveling for work last week, Brian sent me a picture. It's a group shot of all my favorite fellas.

Evan's First Halloween (and memories)

It really is true that a baby changes everything. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, but this year was definitely different. When I was growing up it was always a fun and exciting day. This Halloween was no different. But over the years, as with any adults, holidays become more like just any other day...and they tend to lose the magic. Having Evan has changed that. This was the first year I carved pumpkins. It had been, I'm guessing, since 1995 when I carved the last one. I loved doing this as a kid.

My sis & I carving pumpkins - About 1980

I love the countdown to Halloween...all the scary movies that are on TV. Linda is not a fan, and refuses to watch these slasher flicks with me. I love scary movies! The other night, I had DVR's the original "Halloween", and began watching it. I had recorded it off AMC, so it was censored and had commercial breaks. I told Linda that, but she refused to watch it and went back to our room to watch TV. I can't wait for Evan be old enough to watch these with me. Linda has her reservations about him watching scary movies at a young age. However, my parents loved scary movies and didn't censor what we watched growing up. In fact, when we got our first VCR in the early-mid 1980s, the very first movie we watched as a family on that new fangled contraption was "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". It didn't scar me for life. We were a family that loved scary movies. I remember seeing "Poltergeist", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Jaws 3D", "Friday the 13th" and others in the movie theater with my family. Didn't bother me... I didn't have nightmares and didn't grow up to be a mass murderer. So we'll see how Evan does as he grows up.

When I was a kid though, my mom dressed me as a clown numerous years in a row for Halloween night, that is until I protested and got to choose my Halloween costume. She had made the clown outfit herself, therefore wanted to get good use out of it. Understandable, but I hate clowns to this day. Not only because for the first few years of my life I had to dress in that damn clown outfit, but also because I have a fear of the damn things. I blame the scene from "Poltergeist" for that. (My only adverse effect of watching that movie.) I promise that I won't do that to Evan.

My sis as a witch, me as the clown - About 1980

For Evan's first Halloween, we dressed him in a blue three-eyed, four-armed, pot-bellied monster thing. We dubbed the costume a "Mutated Cookie Monster". We headed up to our hometown, Excelsior, to trick-or-treat with our 4 year old nephew, Brayden, who went as Woody from "Toy Story". Linda's brother and sister-in-law still live in Excelsior, and in fact, in the same neighborhood that I grew up in.

Evan did great! Although he was gypped at a few houses, most people ogled over him and gave him treats. Granted, he won't be able to eat any of the candy, but Linda & I are divvy up the loot. I called dibs on the KitKats and Crunches. Linda's not so keen on that idea.

As we strolled around my childhood neighborhood, I had a feeling of nostalgia overcome me...it really was bittersweet. So much of the neighborhood I spent the first 20 years of my life in had changed. Old neighbors had moved on or passed away...some still remained. Growing up on Virginia Road and in that neighborhood was a trick-or-treaters dream come true in the 1980s. It was a young neighborhood then, and practically every house gave out candy and there was no need to hit any other neighborhood. But today, things had changed. So many houses were dark...either their residences empty (in today's economy) or weren't participating. The neighborhood had gotten old. Not a lot of young families living there anymore...especially on my old street.

I talked John & Steph (Linda's brother & sister) into heading down to my house. I was eager to see if whomever lived in my old house now would be giving out candy...but no such luck. I'm hoping next year. Even though my parents sold that house 6 years ago, it feels like decades ago. Lots has changed since then. That will always be my house. It's nothing special...just another cookie-cutter suburban house built in the 1970s. As much as I hated living there when I was the 'rebellious' teen...what I wouldn't give to see the inside of that house again.

I couldn't help myself but stare at my old house...and remember Halloweens-past...and all the other holidays and good memories I had there. I miss that house. Linda said it even made her reminiscent of the times spent in that house.

I hope Evan is as sentimental as me. I hope that one day I can point that house out to him and tell him that is where his dad grew up...and him feel the same fascination about that house as I did when my dad showed me the house he grew up in.