AliBlog

I can think of worse places for him to find his sense of humor

Robey upon getting dressed: Shoes? Check. Pants? Check. Shirt? Check.

Me: That's funny. Where'd you hear it?

Robey: Homer says it in the Simpson's Movie.

Moe's animal sounds

Mobile post sent by aliblog using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Moe's words of the day

Kiss (he also says, mwa, the kissing sound).

They come at night

Sitting on the toilet in the back bathroom, Robey says to me, "At first when I was back here by myself, I was scared - but then I just said to myself, 'It's okay. Bad guys don't come in the morning. Bad guys don't come in the morning. Bad guys don't come in the morning ...'"

Our little wrestler

3rd place!
Originally uploaded by AliBlog

Last weekend Robey won 3rd place in a local wrestling tournament. Jerm says he's never been more proud of him. Not just for winning a few matches - but for sticking it out and not giving up during the matches he wasn't winning.

On Zanna's mouth

Her bottom lip is full and straight. It quivers before she cries. When she's tired or content, she pulls the bottom left side of her lip into her mouth. The top lip is pointed to make a rosey triangle. She appears to be thinking when she repeatedly pulls her lips into a small circle and relaxes them into a larger oval.

When she's done nursing, she purses her lips, squints her eyes and tilts her head back in exaltation. I call this the fat-cat face, because it reminds me of Sylvester. It's the same fat-cat face that Robey and Moe used to make when they had filled their bellies with milk too.

Recently, she smiles at me or at the room when I'm not looking. Today I walked into the bedroom and caught her smiling at the wall. Usually it's a wide-mouthed, open smile, but today she smiled a small smile while sticking out her tongue out. It's hard to get her to smile on demand, but the best way to try is to tickle her face with a kleenex.

Moe's words of the day

• Sissy (for Zanna). She's also "nice baby."
• Brokey (for broken), which he says all day long because he breaks things all day.
• Wait (He holds up both hands like traffic cop and says, "Wait, wait, wait.")
• Let me see.
• Watch this!

Just some numbers

3: number of dirty diapers changed this morning between 4 & 5am.

30: number of minutes it takes me to single-handedly get all three kids ready to go and into the van.

25: number of minutes it takes to get through the checkout line at Super Wal-Mart when only two registers are open.

4: age the youngest child will have to be before I'm brave enough to take all three to the grocery store by myself.

11: number of days left before I have to go back to work.

?: number of days it will take Jeromy to completely gut and remodel the bathroom. (The gutting is already underway.)

60: Gigabytes worth of music we've ripped to the computer in the last month.

Moe's word(s) of the day

• Clap
• Nap
• Light
• I'm sorry (sounds like "I sharry," when he says it)

I thought about doing these as a separate Twitter feed or a sidebar or even as audio posts on Utterz (both sites that I haven't quite decided how to use yet). But I'm putting them here for now because he's saying so many new words everyday & this is an easy way to document it quickly.

Moe's word of the day

Mess.

(In reference to his bedroom, my hair and his lunch on the floor, among other things.)

123, 5, 3 meme

I've been tagged by David for this book meme. Just before reading his post, I'd been lying on the couch, Zanna sleeping on my belly, reading An Ordinary Spy by Joseph Weisberg. Spy novels are rare for me, but I was drawn to this one by the claim that portions of the text are redacted by the CIA's Central Review Board. I'm still not sure if that claim's legit or a part of the fiction but it drew me in nonetheless. And the story took over from there, consuming me for a few days as good stories often do.

My instructions are to open the nearest book to page 123, skip past the first five sentences, then give you the next three sentences. Here they are:

Bobby didn't understand the joke - it seemed to hinge on some sort of cultural reference that was lost on him - but he laughed appreciatively. It felt like a time to give TRACER exactly what he was looking for, not ask him to explain ____ culture. Back at the Station, he looked up TRACER's friend who had played the joke.

Nothing too revealing there unless you want to see it as a metaphor for the culture of blogging. We could - and some of us do - create inside jokes about blogging all day long. Or we could continue to spread this self-reflective memes over and over again in a way that non-bloggers would never understand. Yes, we could do that - and we will. I don't usually tag for memes, but this one is easy, and even those who've already done it can do it again with a different book. I'm tagging the last five commenters:

• Mich
• Sarah
• Rachel
• Lumpyhead's mom
• Kristy

Pick up the nearest book, turn to page 123, skip the first five sentences on that page, then type the next three sentences. (Non-bloggers are welcome, as always, to play along in the comments.)