As Requested
When John and I woke up to Braden’s “request” (request here means loud, shrieking wails of displeasure at being alone) that we come get him this morning, I put on this shirt:
We went into Braden’s room, saying, “Good Morning, Sweetie!” and got the Good Morning Smile.
[Those of you with children know the GMS. It is sometimes a child's saving grace - one of the things you can bring to mind when he's flinging food in your face or screaming, red-faced, while tantrumming on the floor... that helps you to not kill him. The GMS can be like a cocaine high to a tired, weary parent.]
Braden wanted me to pick him up, so I did, holding him against my front. He leaned back, looking at my chest. Pointing at the shirt, he happily exclaimed, “Ogg-ogg! Ogg-ogg!”
You’re darn right, Boy. That’s a doggie. The parental units were quite pleased.
Oh, and here’s the best I could come up with as per the requests, “We want movies of Braden talking!” It’s not always easy to catch him right when he’s saying a “real word.” You must also understand that those of you who do not speak “Garbled Toddlerese” will have a more difficult time discerning the things he’s saying. Don’t worry, we’re still learning, too.
This video was filmed October 16. It was the first time we heard him mimic “Peekaboo!” This book (Peekaboo Zoo, by Lamaze) asks questions about who is behind each flap, and when you lift the flap, you see an animal and it says, “Peekaboo!” (so, of course, that’s what we exclaim when he lifts a flap).
Observe Braden’s first version of this word:
The next video is a really great example of him identifying The Mexican. It really needs no explanation other than he freakin’ loves this dog, so it’s no wonder that he talks about him.
In this video, Braden gives us one of his versions of “airplane.” Here it sounds like, “deh urpah,” which means, “the airplane.” Often, it’s “aba,” or “dat aba.”
You have to have your audio turned up to catch it… he says it quietly right at the end.
And please excuse the HORRIBLE quality of the video. It was the audio I was more concerned about.
This last delightful video shows Braden reacting to hearing a bird.
That’s right, folks, a heretofore uncatalogued word. I present to you, “bird.”
(You must listen carefully… he says it twice – right at the beginning and right at the end.)
If you were listening carefully, you heard “that?” and “is that?” several times, too. 
I could just eat him up!
Movies = neato.
I like movies.
I used to get mad at movies that were first books. See, more than I like movies, I like books. Books are The Shiz, ya dig? I used to read a book, then watch the movie and groan over how WRONG they got it. Or, I’d see a movie, and then realize there was a book, and get all depressed… see, now if I read the book, I’d have pre-defined ideas about how the people should look and act in my head. That takes away a large amount of the fun.
Books are cool partly because your mind can run away with all the imagery. My mind really likes to do that, so it likes books.
That said, movies also rock very much. I can seriously appreciate a good story line in a movie, and when the actors portray their characters well, it can be breathtaking. I’m also a sucker for a cinematographically beautiful shot.
(And I’m badass for using the word, “cinematographically.”)
Additionally, some killer modern Effects and a slammin’ soundtrack are always a good time.
Along that vein, John and I recently rented a movie called The Hitcher, because Netflix recommended it for us. I’m willing to take movie chances, so I often check out this kind of crap. It sounded interesting. I was totally ready to laugh at what I was sure would be “old looking” and “cheesy” and maybe even “crappy as hell” camera shots and effects, considering that the date on the movie was 1986.
I was a surprised bitch. The movie was rather weird, but actually interesting and entertaining (if you like freakball thriller-type movies, like I do). The time period was definitely noticeable in the quality of the film, but not in a bad way.
And here’s the thing – I was entirely captivated by stunt scenes that were REAL.
You don’t realize how much you have just gotten so incredibly used to seeing computer generated effects in movies until you watch something old. They really had to do stuff like set cars on fire, flip them in chase scenes, and break REAL glass! And it LOOKS DIFFERENT when it’s real.
“Wow, that effect is really great, it looks so real!” can’t compare with, “Holy shit! That car is ACTUALLY on fire, and some stunt dude is driving it – F’in A!”
Upon looking into the film, I also learned that one of the lead actors, Rutger Hauer, actually did a lot of the stunt driving himself. Could he BE any more awesome? No, no he could not. Apparently, he even knocked out a tooth in one of the stunt scenes, where he crashes through a windshield holding a shotgun. Hard core.
Other notable actors in the movie include C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Personally, I enjoyed watching Ponyboy Curtis get all flustered over almost eating a finger, and, here, Single White Female does NOT survive until the end of the movie.
I came away from the viewing with 2 fun, memorable quotes (both spoken by Rutger Hauer’s character, “John Ryder”):
“So, how ya like Shitsville?”
And, the considerably longer, and much creepier:
“Well, he couldn’t walk far. [pause] I cut off his legs. [pause] And his arms. [pause] And his head. [pause] And I’m going to do the same to you.”
But, I digress.
I like movies.
So, from time to time, I’ll be talking about them.
Armoire, How I Love Thee
A few days ago, I built an entertainment center. John and I have never had one, so this was a very cool thing to us.
In Austin, there was a hole built into the wall that the mammoth of a TV we owned then sat in. We sold that giant when we moved to TN, and used our old bedroom TV as our new living room tv.
That’s right. No more bedroom TV. This was actually a purposeful turn of events. We decided that TV is really not a bedroom event. There are other things to be done in the bedroom, sleep being one of them, but definitely not the only thing. No bedroom in our home will ever have a TV in it again. (Have I mentioned before how TV is the devil?)
So, anyway, the tv we’ve been using sits on a small, ancient (my mom bought it used, at a yard sale, when I was a kid) end table-type stand. All the electronic equipment (dvd player, receiver, vhs player, xbox) has always just been underneath the table… but this is NOT childproof!
So, in order to protect our son, and our electronic equipment, we’ve had to have other things blocking the front of the TV area to keep Braden away since he’s been mobile… some things haven’t even been hooked up since we moved to the house… and, in general it was just, well… totally ghetto-fied. So we invested some moolah into buying our first, real, badass EC.
Our EC is made of real Brazilian Pine (so I can think of Evelynn while I gaze upon it) in a honey stain. It was way cheaper than most of the ones I found ‘out there,’ but matches our other living room furniture wonderfully, and had all the features we wanted.
Its professional name is “Armoire,” my friends. The cabinet doors fold back all the way for our viewing pleasure, and then they close completely when it’s time for the TV to go “bye-bye.” (This is what we tell Braden after a viewing session of, say, Baby Einstein or “It’s a Big, Big World.” We turn it off, wave at it, and say, “Bye-bye, TV!”)
And, by the way, I rock at putting things together. I love building projects. Home-improvement projects, and the like, are my thing. My dad definitely passed on the “handy-man gene” to his middle child.
Check it out:
Tools/Supplies:
Showing off the building materials.
Preparing to build, and happy about wielding a hammer!
Screwing and handling knobs.
It’s taking shape!
Ahhh… gaze upon its “almost done” beauty!
Celebrating how much I Rock.
John decides to help me finish up by hammering the back piece onto the unit.
Notice the naked baby leg behind him. Heh.
Braden helps John hammer on the back piece. We couldn’t have done it without him!
And now we have the TV and equipment inside, set up in rudimentary fashion. When John returns from this weekend’s “Time to Make the Doughnuts” road trip, he’ll set to the task of setting everything up right, complete with running speaker cables and mounting our surround sound speakers.
And then we’re gonna rent some badass porn.
Okay, so, maybe not.
Isn’t our new armoire lovely?
*sigh*
Here I Go!
Well, here’s my new blogspot. Wow.
I usually just hang out and blog on the infamous (haha) Myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/lotus_siva
*looks around*
I think it looks pretty good now that I’ve set all the settings and filled in all the forms.
Guess I need to start with the posting of the blogs, and whatnot, eh?
Don’t worry… I’ll get on it… just as soon as I’m done rescuing my 11-month old son, Braden, from his own room.
He just wandered in there and closed the door all the way
*click*
for the first time. Babies… their lack of knowing what the hell is going on is sometimes very frustrating, but mostly incredibly amusing.
His room’s pretty well child-proofed, so I’ve waited until he started making a mild distress sound. I’m hearing, “eh. eh.” through the door now, so I’ll be going.
See ya later!
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