one year old.

Assessment
Number of teeth: 6
Favorite food: grapes, cheese, and chocolate.
Walking: not even close. Orion is thrilled with his smack-smack-smack the floor crawling.
Life goal: to obtain an opened, non-empty can of Coca-Cola.
Birthday party: one was held at home, on the Sunday prior to his birthday; another impromptu celebration popped up at work, where Baby O is a dedicated employee.

soooo long, farewell...no, not farewell...

It's been so long since I logged onto blogger...
--I couldn't remember what the site was called
--I couldn't remember what my username was
--I couldn't remember my password
--Couldn't remember what my last post was.
Pretty sad!

What has changed since the last time I posted?
--My father has finally gotten himself and my siblings moved into their own place.
--Torrin's good start to the school year has taken a downhill turn
--Mira is finally learning her letters, in preschool, since I don't teach her such things.
--Orion crawls all over the place and has 4 teeth. I don't mind that he is 10 months old and not walking. He is my baby and there is no rush. He waves bye-bye and is a great little guy. Baby O is a rather long and lean little dude, not so much a chubby boy at all. He still goes to work with me and I haven't started looking for a daycare for him either.

Basically, stay in school, blah blah blah...

This evening after dinner, while Torrin was washing dishes, he mentioned something about President Obama's speech.

This after I'd spent a collection of various moments the past few days infuriated by the partisan venom spewing about. I'd expressed subdued versions of my opinion on the matter on various websites, and yet I'd gone through nearly the whole day without having actually heard the speech, seen it in print, or talked to someone who had.

And there before me, was my own progeny, and intended audience of The Speech. So, I asked him what he thought about it. Torrin said something like "basically, stay in school, blah blah blah, just like what other normal people say when they talk to kids at school."

Wow...so earth-shattering. What's the uproar? Oh, right, the lesson plan. How to Help the President. You mean it wasn't "why Americans should be Socialists?" No? We should...stay in school? Who's paying for that? Oh...um...taxpayer funded public schools... Oh, wait. Other normal people talk to kids in schools too? Isn't that taking up instructional time? What? Well then what about, say, a pep rally? Another instructional time drainer all in favor of promoting unity...um...hmmm. I don't want my kid learning the school song, or even knowing what the school mascot is! No way! What we really need to do is force teachers to register their party affiliations and let us choose our children's instructors based on political ideologies.

Upon further probing, Torrin reported that Obama said "all across America, like, 50 times." "Stay in school." "Don't do drugs." Boy, if that's the message my 8-year-old kid heard, it couldn't have been that bad.

Right?

the whole MONTH of August gone?

So, um, yeah. I haven't been posting. If I could do it from my phone I might! I have a very basic phone, and in general do not approve of the practice of cell-phone-photographing, but it is quite a handy trick. I will offer a glimpse of our past month with phone pictures, with the exception of this first one: That is Mira at the Indian Club powwow on August 1. My friend and I were up all night working on very simple dresses. I don't know how to sew. Never even took Home Ec (Family Consumer Science, whatever you call it these days) either. My mother is the opposite of hand-made, home-made, etc., so I didn't learn anything from her. My friend was a textiles art person...a few years ago, and my great-grandmother's sewing machine, borrowed from my auntie, had not been her particular design whittler so things were very slow-going. Of course that could have been avoided with some simple advance planning, but that would be way too obvious. Also of note, Mira's hair was comprised of only the third- and fourth-attempt I have ever made at French-braiding. Possibly fourth and fifth, but no more, no exaggeration at all. She "danced" in the powwow. Note quotation marks. Main point, she had fun.

Here is Torrin on his first day of school, August 19, 2009, beginning 3rd grade. He looks grim, but honestly he was thankful to return to school. He's just totally over the whole "look-happy-for-mom-taking-pictures" thing.

Here is Orion on the same day, smiling as we waited for.EV.er at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) with a client. I go in to get my renewal license in two weeks, yay...

Torrin on August 15 in the dressing room at Kohl's, trying on clothes for school. We couldn't afford to buy this shirt that Torrin liked, so I told him I'd take a picture of him in it...

Mira on the 13th of August at PetCo...she was filling up the container of kitty litter.

And here is Orion in the same Kohl's dressing room as Torrin, on the 15th.

Why I don't post more often.

This on Thursday morning just before leaving for work/daycare/summer program...they said they were King Kongs...

Brownville, a bit late.

On Saturday, July 11, my dad's band Full Measure played a riverboat gig on the Spirit of Brownville to 81 ticketholders. Tickets sold for $10. They are a classic rock cover band, and that band is one of the reasons that we have the kids here at our house so much. But anyway. Once we got to Brownville, we didn't know where to go next. We wound our way up a crazy hill, past a super-redneck-looking shanty of a house...and found ourselves at an intersection facing not one, but two red Festivas.

We asked this guy for directions. You can't see the little yippy dog that was occupying the passenger seat. It was at that point that we knew that everything would be all right.

There's Ben and Orion looking peaceful on the boat, watching the Missouri River waves.

My dad's band. He is goofy. And barefoot.

Little sister Claire and brother Anthony, reverting to their natural state... :)

Orion tried his first ice-popsicle.

Our banana masterpieces. Stolen from the floating hotel's kitchen, and returned, in better fashion.

We stopped for a bit of R&R the next day at the Antiquarium before heading back to L-Town. Ben and I purchased, among other things, a National Geographic magazine from the year 1913.

This picture was taken on the way home...at an intersection, I looked to my right and saw this hanging in a shop window. What do you read at first glance? Support our troops...a bit of irony there.

finally did it...

After much debate (mostly internal, on my part), it has been done. Mira has bangs. In general, I am not a fan of bangs on little girls. I, for one, had them, and had far too much of them. So often you see little girls with as much bangs as the rest of their hair. Too much bangs begins to infringe on that dreaded mullet look. The other thing I hate about bangs is that once you have them, it's so hard to get rid of them.

Mira had a ton of chin-length wispies. She has often eaten them. She has asked to get her hair cut a few times, and upon further questioning it came out that those short hairs in front were the ones that bugged her. I cut only the chin length hairs, none of the rest of her long hair (which goes just past her little bum).

At first Mira wasn't really cooperating and wouldn't give me a nnice happy picture. I don't mind pictures where kids aren't smiling, but as my little sister Claire pointed out, it looks like a mug shot! Mira says it's her "plain face." But we handed her the scissors and she cheesed away.