My two boys are very different from each other, and I’m glad for that. They are so special, and it’s neat getting to see the unique things that make them each their very own person. It’s amazing to see the way Max’s influence molds Khai, even this early– and it lends more truth to the whole birth order phenomenon.

Max has always been a quick learner. I say quick, but I really mean super-mega-lightning-fast. Before age two, he knew his alphabet (could say it and recognize all of the letters), could count and recognize numbers 0 through 13, and could name all of the planets in order, among other things. He learns the way I learn, so it was easy to get him interested in things, to read to him, to help him when he got frustrated. Max did, and still seems to, easily regurgitate information at the drop of a hat– and enjoys the praise he gets for doing just that.

With Khai, it’s a totally different story. He’s very smart, but doesn’t like repeating anything or going over things like the alphabet. He enjoys reading, but likes different books than Max did; I still haven’t figured out exactly what learning style works best with him. He surprises me with the things he knows, because he often doesn’t let on that he knows something until HE chooses. I can ask him a dozen times if he knows “what comes after number 4″– but he’ll ignore me. Then later on, he’ll be playing and singing “1, 2, 3, 4, 5!”

Yesterday, Max was arranging letters on the fridge in alphabetical order, singing as he went. Khai pitched in on the song here and there– something I’ve not been able to get him to do. It’s not like I put pressure on him or anything, but I sing the alphabet song to him, show him letters, etc. He just hasn’t shown any interest in it whatsoever. Anyway, he knows quite a bit of the alphabet… probably more thanks to playing with Max than anything I’ve done.

Earlier, Khai made a ‘wagon puller’ with his little scooter, and told me in a very commanding voice, “don’t mess it up!” Now that’s something straight from Max… so funny.

I finished Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World yesterday. I can’t believe I hadn’t read it until now. It must have really ruffled some feathers back when it was written (1932!)– even now, it’s not a light book. It’s been frequently banned from schools and challenged in libraries, which strikes me as odd. This should be required reading, IMHO. As a sidenote, I also found that Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is on the most frequently challenged list… whaaa??? I checked that book out of my elementary school’s library like 34,598 times as a kid. I first read it at age 7, at my mother’s recommendation. I don’t understand just what it is that people are so very afraid of. If we close our eyes to the things outside our current understanding and/or comfort zone, they don’t just go away.

Despite getting eight hours of sleep last night, I feel like I can barely keep my eyes open. It’s library day, so I’m going to have to force them open somehow.

The sun is shining just right on the wind-blown trees… there are beautiful shadow patterns dancing all over the room.

Max is staying home from preschool for the second day in a row now– his cough is better, but it’s still just enough that he shouldn’t be around other kids. Khai is coughing now, too, though not as much as Max was. Fortunately, they aren’t miserable… just uncomfortable. Oh, and grumpy.

I find that I really need those almost-three-hours of preschool; life is less intense with just one kid climbing on me. Distraction attempts will be made today with Halloween crafts and maybe some baking. Yes, it will make a mess… but that can be cleaned up. My sanity doesn’t recover quite as easily.

My dreams lately are vivid and weird. Just before waking up this morning, I was dreaming about this machine that sat alongside a gas pump. There were buttons to buy lottery tickets, and then it was also a camera. You hit all the right buttons, and down the two chutes come lottery tickets and your photos, all packaged nicely in little waxed paper envelopes. ??? Convenient! Who doesn’t need a photo of themselves pumping gas?

I’m hungry. IHOP should deliver. Oooh, and Starbucks too. Of course, I’d be completely and utterly broke if they did. They’d have to deliver the goods to my two-room cardboard box.

There are an astounding number of emails I need to respond to, but I have this thing about doing it all at once. I don’t want to reply to one or two, then leave the rest sitting in my inbox until the next chunk of spare time… I want to sit down and respond to everyone (in order of receipt, natch) and mark the entire task as done. Except it rarely works that way in reality, because there are always new emails flying into my inbox. Not that I’m complaining, mind you– I love getting email and am sad when there’s nothing but spam awaiting me– it’s just that I need to get a grip and manage my time better, in a nice and neuroses-free way.

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.”
–Muriel Rukeyser

I don’t watch the news on television– it seems more like a Hollywood production aimed at entertainment than real current events. Reading the news online gives me a sinking, sick feeling. I’m both afraid of my country and FOR my country, and don’t know how to help change things. There are so many things that seem so obviously wrong, yet they keep happening, and we are allowing them to happen. I don’t understand. I hate feeling helpless.

It’s been a frustrating night full of CSS and constant browser refreshes, but I’ve been able to fix a few things that weren’t working right in IE. The easy solution would just be to convince everyone to make the switch to Firefox (pixellaneous is so much prettier in Firefox!)… but so far, I’ve not succeeded in that. Despite testing the site in IE after redesigning a while back, I hadn’t noticed most of the problems until a few days ago. I hate that. Child Process looks better now, too– there were a lot of things broken there. I’ve been productive today! It’s nice to actually be able to mark something as DONE on my giant to-do list.

Both of my boys are under the weather: Max has a cough and Khai has the ooky-thick nose goo. That could be an actual medical term. Both the pumpkin search and a park date were postponed to avoid spreading the germs. I always feel weird taking them places if they’re coughing, even if it’s just allergies– the glares from wary moms could melt concrete. I can understand, though.

We almost went geocaching instead (or treasure hunting, in Max terms), but Josh ended up having to do some work-related things so we put that off, as well. Kind of a bummer, but it’ll be there another day. Max was more disappointed about missing that than any of the other planned outings.

There are a few hundred photos that I need to sort through, color-correct and post. I get behind so quickly. If only I could function without sleep… oh, wait, I’m doing that already.

…Happy Birthday, Mommy. I love you. :)

Today, Max and I met with the speech therapist at our local elementary school. He started stuttering about a year and a half ago, seemingly out of the blue. In my web research and in talking to his pediatrician, I found that it’s a pretty common thing, and that most kids grow out of it on their own. Still, I want to help if I can, even if it’s just some simple exercises. It’s odd– his stutter comes and goes; sometimes he hardly stutters at all, and other times you can see the frustration building as his mind keeps working while his mouth lags behind. The therapist thinks that she’ll be able to help him, so I’m very excited. More than anything, I don’t want him to have to endure teasing from other kids later on. He’s such an outgoing, social little boy and I’d hate to see that subdued because he feels insecure or self-conscious because he stutters. Max is ready to go back and see “the teacher who helps my words not get stuck,” though I think he’s really more interested in the toys in her classroom. ;)

I’ve not surfed my normal haunts for days now– there’s just been a lot going on. This makes visiting LifeHacker and 43 Folders feel like eating cheesecake and pizza after a diet of carrots and celery (only without the bloating, and far fewer calories). You should’ve seen the shiny, happy, sparkly glee all over my face. Or maybe it was a big, stupid grin– I’m not sure which.

Make magazine’s make: blog now has a crafts archive. Front and center: embroidered robots! There’s just something about robots, especially those of the fifties-style futuristic clunky variety.

Also noteworthy is the 43 Folders Geek Gift Guide. Though it would have been nice to have this last week, I have no doubt that it’ll come in handy for Josh’s next birthday. Of course, if all else fails, I can fall back on The Bacon of the Month Club. Really, nothing says love like bacon.

Want to know a secret? I’m blogging from my bed… life is good. :)

I’ve got nothing of interest to write about, but that’s not entirely unusual. The weather’s been *perfect* and that’s resulted in lots of outdoor time, both at the park and in our backyard. The boys love their fort. :)

I forgot to mention that last Friday (a week ago already… wow) we went to the Dallas Zoo. The boys had a good time, and Max rode a carousel for the very first time. I’m not sure what their favorite animals were, but both Max and Khai were quite pleased with the alligator and elephant squirt-top bottles they got at the crazy-expensive zoo restaurant. I think we paid $2.75 for each one, and ended up dumping out the Hi-C inside so I could fill them with water instead. Yeah, I’m one of those mean parents who doesn’t let my kids drink Kool-Aid or soda. Sugar = bad bad bad. In any case, they’ve talked more about those than the animals.

Last Friday night (don’t you love this time-delay blogging? …only a week behind), Josh went out to see a movie with a friend. I decided to watch a movie while being crafty and working on my mom’s bday present… and ended up watching Save the Last Dance. Let me just state now that I am not proud to admit that I watched the entire movie. It was bad. Really bad. How do movies like that actually get made, much less distributed? Cheesy AND entirely predictable. Ugh. This is also a statement on our sad Friday night movie selection, despite paying for a hundred or so channels via satellite. One positive thing is that Julia Stiles has grown from the experience– her acting skills are much better in the more recent films I’ve seen her in. She’s got the greatest voice… I’m only the tiniest bit envious.

Not cheesy nor predictable: Crash. Excellent movie, though hard to watch. It’s good that I didn’t see it in a theater, considering the shameless sobbing that ensued.

I don’t think there’s anything too exciting planned for this weekend, but hopefully we’ll get out to Pumpkin Express so the boys can pick out some pumpkins. We tried buying some at the store, but most of them in the big bin were moldy. EWWWW! There’s no way I’m paying for moldy pumpkins. Disgusting. Max loved the Pumpkin Express last year (he went with his preschool class), so I know he’d be happy to go again. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and I’ll get to ride the little train, too! One can hope.

A commercial for Good Night, and Good Luck was just on a bit ago. Robert Downey, Jr. is in the film, and I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for him. Why? Because of a dream I had, like ten years ago. Yeah, it sounds lame… but in the dream, he was the nicest, most genuine person! So real. Ever since then, it feels like I know him. Me an’ Robert? Old friends! Also, I’m reminded of my years-long, rather intense dislike of George Clooney. It’s waning some, perhaps due to my ever-increasing age and/or indifference. Oh, the crazy is showing again!

I should stop typing now.

All day today, I’ve had this evil headache– one of those headaches that’s made worse by noise, light, and movement. It even made me nauseous for a while there, maybe because the boys spent much of the day screaming at each other. Meltdown city, ALL DAY LONG. Ouch.

There will be a new farmers market store opening in Flower Mound soon. Some friends of ours really like the Sprouts in Plano, so I’m excited to have one nearby. Hopefully they’ll sell spelt flour in bulk– right now we have to drive at least half an hour to find it.

Speaking of alternative foods, I made macaroni and cheese with ham for dinner (for the second time in as many weeks). I’d kind of forgotten that it existed at all, but now that that boys have had it, they’ve developed a taste for it. I make my own sauce with butter stubstitute, rice milk, spelt flour, and rice cheddar cheese, then put that over quinoa or corn pasta. It might sound really strange, but it’s actually good! Especially when you consider that my poor kids have never had it before. They’ve been so deprived. ;)

Max told me today that he changed his mind, and wants to be an umpire for Halloween.
Me: What?
Max: You know, with the sharp teeth, and they eat blood?
Me: OH. A vampire?
Max: Yeah. A vampire.

I must be ill– it’s not even 10pm yet, and I’m going to go crawl in bed. Maybe I can sleep this headache off.

Yesterday, Katie and I caffeinated ourselves and then spent three-plus hours trekking through the wilds of IKEA. It’s 310,000 square feet! The best part was the children’s section– it was full of cool and colorful furniture and, um… bright, fuzzy stuff. I exercised extreme willpower and managed to spend less than thirty dollars. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we reached the exit, and barely had the energy to shuffle our feet toward the car. Death by shopping? It might be a real possibility.

It wouldn’t have been so overwhelming if we’d had a specific purpose or item to look for… so next time I’ll be sure to have a mission in mind. If I could get the go-ahead from Josh, I could take care of a new kitchen in short order!

Josh and the boys spent a lot of time outdoors taking advantage of this perfect weather. I’m glad they got some play in together since Josh will be in Arkansas all week. We’ll be decorating the house for Halloween so he’ll be surprised upon his return– Max and Khai are SO excited, and are already asking for pumpkins so we can carve jack-o-lanterns. I think we’ll buy a couple and paint faces on them; carving can come later in the month.

We got to see Uncle Matt for a short while last night– he and a friend caught both a Cowboys and a Stars game this weekend and stopped for a visit on their way out of town. I love my little brother. We don’t see each other often enough, especially considering we only live a couple of hours apart… but such is life, I suppose.

Max has resurrected his favorite self-made curseword. In trying to build a car wash with a zooming tube (he’d probably show you the blueprints if you asked nicely), he got very angry because, you know, gravity just sucks sometimes. He growled, and suddenly yelled, “AWWW, CRAPPIT!!!” It was so hard not to laugh out loud. Of course, I had to explain why he can’t use that word, and after some discussion we chose, “oh, bananas” as a substitute explitive. It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, though.

It’s just not as much fun to shop all by myself. Granted, it’s nearly impossible to shop with the boys in tow, but I discovered today that I really need to hold out until I can take a friend or two with me. In trying to find a pair of jeans, I came up empty-handed: even with all of the uber-long jeans that are in style now, I’m still hard-pressed to find a pair long enough. The ones that were long enough made my hips look huge, and I’m not just being self-deprecating here. I know how big my hips are, and those jeans were anything but flattering. If I’d had a friend with me, it might have been easier to laugh it off… but after two stores and an hour of pulling jeans on, scowling in the mirror, taking them off, and starting again, I was feeling kind of defeated. What’s a girl to do?

This cool weather is going to spoil me. Could we please make Texas feel like this all the time? It’s glorious… being outside is actually enjoyable.

There were other things floating around in my mind, but they’ve escaped now… I guess that’s my cue to get some sleep.