The first haircut

So Matthias had his first haircut on Sunday, and no - I haven't taken any pictures yet (I know - false advertising).

Vivi got out her scissors and Hubby sat down in the kitchen, put a dishtowel around the baby's neck and sat him on his lap.

Apparently, they figured he'd sit still for them.

Heh.

Didn't happen quite that way.

With the first sensation of, "Someone's pulling on my hair! OH NOES!" the screaming began.  You'd have thought she was stabbing him with the scissors or something the way he was screaming. 

She managed to do a decent clip around the sides and top of Matthias' head, and then said, "That should do it!"

I looked at my baby and saw that she'd left the back long.

OH HELL NO - NO MULLETS

I said, "Um, the back needs to be cut too." 

She thought it looked cute long.

I used the Presidential Veto.

The back is now short like the rest.  I'll try to get some pictures of it tonight, but now he looks like a toddler and not so much a baby anymore.

Pictures? I happen to have pictures!

As well as SOME news.

I passed my Bachelor's project from hell.  We got a C+ for a grade because our data, "wasn't reader friendly".  I bit my tongue, nodded and just signed off on the papers, because the urge to strangle Ole was nearly overwhelming me. 

You see, he was supposed to go OVER our data with us, but blew our meeting off to go golfing with his son because, "it's going to be the last nice weekend of the month".

Nice, eh?

Well, that's done with.  Provided I pass my Population Biology course this semester, I will have a double Bachelor's degree come January.

Yay me.

Now, on to the IMPORTANT stuff: Pictures!


Here's the little munchkin!

You might notice he's not so little anymore.

He eats like a horse and is built like a brick privy.

He's about as heavy as he is tall, too.

If I recall correctly he's about 35 pounds and 35 inches.

He's also a very dirty, dirty boy.

Rest assured, he gets regular baths.  He just likes playing in the dirt like most kids.

If I could just get him to stop saving sand in his diaper....

He's a complete Daddy's boy too.  I don't mind it though. It means Hubby gets to carry him around everywhere.

How can you not love those cheeks???

He's also the proud owner of 12 teeth.

You can see 6 of them here.  He's got a matching set upstairs too.

His incisors are on their way in soon, so we'll have more grumpy baby drooling over everything.

He's had tubes put in his ears and his adenoids removed already.  Hopefully that'll put an end to the ear infections, water on the ear and snoring he's had.

I haven't heard him snore since they've been removed and that's a good thing. He actually woke Hubby up with his snoring once (and that's saying something, since HUBBY snores himself!)

Here he is playing peekaboo on the couch.

I think Sunday we're going to go to Vivi's and cut his hair.  He's got nice, fine hair all over his head EXCEPT for the very back which is like coarse wire, and gets snarled EVERY night.

He's not fond of the hairbrush (neither was Nessa), so cutting it will make things easier for all of us.

It'll be a shame to lose the curls though.  He gets some of the most adorable curls I've seen in years - curls like Morgan had when she was a baby.

This is his, "No Mommy, not the HAIRBRUSH!" look.

"You don't REALLY want to brush my hair now, DO you?"

What?? The 31st of July already??

Holy crap has time gotten away from me.

I can't believe I've gone 3 months without posting here.  Well, as you can imagine the baby has grown by leaps and bounds, and at 14 months (almost 15 now) he's starting to walk on his own.

He's gotten "hi" and "taytoo" (thank you) down so far, as well as Mama and Dada.  On occasion he'll say 'woofie' for Vivi's dogs.

He's gotten the swing of being in daycare, and usually he's completely covered in sand and gritty things when we pick him up - a sure sign he's having a blast.

He's got 8 teeth now,  4 & 4, and is working on at least two molars, if the amount of drool he's producing is any indication.

We've had two bouts of pinkeye, got rid of it the first time and it came back, even though I'd washed the house down with bleachwater: washed all his toys, bedding, crib, walls, doors and floor (carpet included). It seems to be gone now though, thankfully - he wasn't too thrilled about the gel we had to put in his eyes. (Not that I can blame him, really).

This may I was back in Kansas, for the first time in 15 years. Believe me, not much has changed. Oh sure, Lawrence KS (where KU is) has been built up pretty well, there's lots of new development there - but it's still as flat as ever, and the people there haven't changed at all.

Except for Daniel.  His hair has REALLY thinned out since we divorced. He's still burly and all, and he's smoking again - but I was amazed at how much hair he'd lost.

Vanessa's graduation was lovely - a bit different than what I'm used to from back home, but lovely all the same. What you're seeing here is their 'receiving line' for all the new grads - since the school is so small, and everyone knows everyone, they line up for well-wishes, etc outside.  I wasn't aware of it, so I was kind of taken aback because I'd hurried to get outside (in the fresh air) and then realized I was going to have to wait until everyone else had gone by in order to give my hug to Vanessa.  Shit happens.

While I was there, I saw Jack and Jasmine again - Daniel's father and sister.  Jack hasn't changed much, might be a bit thinner now - but since he lost Darlene in '06 I think he's a bit lost.

He seemed happy enough to see me, and he was very proud of Vanessa as well.

He and I both agreed that Daniel married a shorter version of Darlene.

That speaks volumes, doesn't it?

Vanessa has a new boyfriend (of course). His name is John, and from what I've seen he's a very nice young man who knows he will suffer for a very long time should he hurt my baby.

They all play in a band called "Your sweetest alibi" - a mixture of rock/punk. He's a junior so she'll have a year in college without him (which isn't a bad thing), but all in all I like him more than I liked her previous boyfriend.

She looked beautiful for her graduation.  She's grown up to be a very self assured young lady who's got her head set on right.

I'm very proud of her.

Here she is at her graduation party with her father. It was held at a shelterhouse at Pomona Lake, and was very nice. Her friends showed up as well as the band and her boss (a very nice gentleman, I might add). 

It was a nice quiet place until the band fired up their amps and started playing.  I can now say that I understand what my mother went through when she had to listen to my music when I was growing up.  Sorry Mom! I'm still proud of her though!

Speaking of being proud, Vanessa was all excited about their 'gig' they were having the day after I arrived. Apparently it was to be held at a barn in Carbondale, and that all the local talent goes there to practice and play. So I rode there with Daniel, Amy and Vanessa in their car while they followed John to the gig.

That's when things got interesting. When I think of a 'barn' in Kansas, images of the Grand Ole Opry come to light - something wholesome and family orientated - you know with actual FARM ANIMALS and things there.

This 'barn' was actually a machine shop, and I think it doubled as the stage setting for all the Jeff Foxworthy, "You might be a redneck IF..." jokes.

The kids all had a great time playing and jammig along, while I could feel my hair turning grey.

This was not at ALL what I'd expected from a 'gig', if you know what I mean.

Did I forget to mention the BIKERS? 

Oh yes, there were bikers at this barn. This is where they come to have their meetings, drink Jagermeister, and wear their  handguns at the waistband of their jeans.

Think I'm shitting you? Check the picture.

One of them came up to me and said, "Man, the blonde that's singing is hot, do you know her name?" 

I gave him the stare of death and said, "Yes I do, since I'm her mother."

He got the 'OH SHIT' look on his face, turned around and ran the other way.

Daniel spent most of the night apologizing to me for bringing us all there; he'd had no idea that the 'barn' was what it was either.  I think he was afraid I'd start screaming at him for being a fuck-up or something.  Amy said she'd had a wonderful time and felt right at home, seeing as her father used to be a Hell's Angel.  

Somehow, I wasn't surprised to hear that.

Anyhow, the girls came out to Denmark in June, and we had a wonderful time. We went to the beach, to the movies, into Copenhagen and even spent a day in Aarhus in "Den Gamle By" - which means "The Old City".  

Basically they've preserved buildings from the middle ages on to the late 1800's and reconstructed them in a small city where you can walk around and see what life was like at that point in time.

We visited the bakery, the inn, the toyshop and pretty much admired the buildings and the cobblestone streets.  It was an odd juxtaposition between old and new, because this little city is tucked inside the city of Aarhus, which is very much into the 21st century.

We ate at the restaurant in the Old City, and then we wandered off into the botanical garden which is right next door.

I can't say that we saw too much of it, we all pretty much just collapsed into the grass beneath the shade of a tree, took off our sandals and just relaxed.

It was hot as hell that day.

Here's two pooped teenagers.

Not to be outdone, one pooped Husband.

As you can see, Matthias had it made in the shade..

Picture time..

So I've been slacking the last month with the blog, I know, I know.

There's actually been quite a bit happening, I just haven't had a chance to sit down and go through it all.

Where to begin, where to begin...


I'll start with school. That's always a good choice.









School is going as well as can be expected; our Supervisor Ole either had a senior moment or forgot what we had discussed when we set up the experiment but he realized that we were essentially MISSING half of the setup. Naturally, neither Marietta nor myself were thrilled to hear that, but we busted our asses (as well as our husbands') to get what we needed for the other half of the experiment.

Hopefully it won't impact our grade, since it wasn't our fuckup, you know?



Mom's birthday was uneventful - I sent her a gift card from Newick's - not that she can USE it since she's having more trouble with her teeth, but I know at SOME point she'll be able to, and I suppose that's good enough for me.













Matthias is now officially in nursery school, and doing well. He eats like a horse while there and pretty much sleeps for 2 hours over noon and then is a bundle of energy again (after eating again, of course). He's pretty much off baby food (still gets 1-2 bottles a day) and is eating our table food and drinking whole milk. (Babies need the higher fat content for their little brains - they develop so quick between 1-2 years).





My ex-fiance Michael is now married. Today was the big day for him, and I wish him the best in the world with his new wife. Even though he and I didn't work out; he'll always hold a special place in my heart (and he knows it). I did nag at him to remember a hat and sunscreen for his honeymoon in the Caribbean though.

Some things will never change.






This was after he'd been at nursery school the entire day, and had played outside in the dirt (all of the dirt), and managed to get himself completely dirty.

A nice long soak in the tub occurred shortly after this picture was taken, which resulted in a flood in my bathroom and Hubby being drenched from head to toe.

Good times.

...and we're off!

Matthias is now officially crawling.

He's up on all 4's and on the move.

Life as we knew it is over! (ha!)

Playground fun

Since the nice weather's been holding out, we decided to take Matthias out to the playground that's behind our apartment.

On the plus side, there's plenty of things that he can use and play with when he gets older.

On the down side, our neighbor's cat apparently thinks it's a large litterbox. If we catch the cat in the gravel doing its business, we're going to report it to the homeowner's association and make them keep the cat indoors (they're supposed to anyway).

I mean really - who wants their kids playing in cat poop? Not me!

He's such a little charmer, isn't he though?

Gram Chase would say he was cunnin'!

Rubber Ducky, You're the One...

You make my bathtime SO much fun!

Or, in lolcatspeak, "I HAS A RUBBER DUCKY!"

See Mom??!? See!?!??! I have a rubber ducky!!











We were having such a good time in the tub, I had to grab the camera and take some more pictures.

You can see the bottom teeth now too!!

"Aren't I handsome, Mom?"

As you can see, he's been splashing around too!











"What do you mean, duckies aren't for tasting?"

"Mmmmm... duck"










...and after the bath, into the Batman Jammies.

Some of the 18 month outfits are getting short on him.

He's growing longer and longer by the day, it's incredible.