Complaining and update
That's right, a real update! But you have to go through my complaining first.
Complaining:
I don't understand why people keep running to genetics to make excuses for themselves. Any behavior that's unacceptable, science keeps finding "proof" that it's in a person's genetic makeup to do whatever that behavior is. What started all this was a story on the NBC Nightly News about a supposed gene that appears in men who aren't in relationships or that cheat. It's almost as bad as the people who "studied" birds and other animals and found from those studies that people aren't supposed to be monogamous. Anyway, the clip about the study had a little blurb toward the end that other factors such as community, family, and religious beliefs can also make a difference, so it's not all genetics. Like people will listen to that part of the story.
I'm tired of Obama's fear-mongering. That's all I have to say about that.
Update:
Amy's progressing nicely. She's been learning several new signs and she's started using the ones she already knows without prompting. I can't find out why she's been using "cookie" as a sign she might want to nurse, though. As far as motor skills, she's running around and has finally started to lose her frustration while playing with her big Legos. She's also more than happy to color all over Mommy's papers with Mommy's pen as well as her crayons in her notebook. One of the main words she's picked up is "cheese." She says it anytime we rattle something in the fridge or cabinet. We haven't managed to get Amy to sleep on any sort of schedule yet. I'm REALLY hoping we can work that kink out soon. We've been looking at potty training Amy, but we'd like to get her on a more structured eating and sleeping schedule first. One of my weapons to help the bedtime battles is a bedtime routine I've developed. I've not found something to do for naptime. The biggest thing about her bedtime routine is it includes a bath. That's all fine and dandy...unless you want to wash her hair. Anytime you pour water over her head, she freaks. The only thing I haven't tried yet is using the removeable shower head. The weird thing is she'll let me get her head wet by squeezing a washcloth full of water onto her head. So I'm confused.
Our little family's taking a trip to Brown County State Park this weekend. Camping, of course. And we've discovered that the Estes curse survived me changing my name. Every time we've camped it has rained, and this weekend looks to not be disappointing in that regard. Gustav and Hanna are doing something weird that'll give us the rain. Oh well, it's not supposed to rain the whole weekend. We're going camping both as a family vacation and as a celebration of me putting up with Buddy for a year. I mean, uh, for the wonderful event of Buddy and I being married for a year. (Buddy never reads this stuff, I think, so I should be safe...hehe.)
We're looking forward to moving down to somewhere in Johnson county next year. It'll be an apartment, we just don't know where just yet. Our lease isn't up until the start of May. We've also been scouting out how much work we'd have to do before we could buy a house and we got the answer we kind of figured we'd get. We only ran Buddy's credit and it'd take around 3-6 months to just clean up his credit enough to get anywhere near a decent loan. We also don't have anything saved for a down payment. Again, it's not like we were expecting any different. We mainly wanted to figure out where we'd be going from here and an approximate time table.
Another thing we're looking at is getting a second vehicle so I'm not at home alone with Amy with no ride. We've not paid the truck off yet, but we're working on that. It'll be a Christmas present for Buddy. :-) The second one will be the family vehicle, but it'll be primarily mine. We're sort of planning for only two kids, so we don't need a ton of room. We were looking at either a minivan or an SUV, so we started looking at what was out there. My "minivan" of choice has always been an Astro, but I also like the Grand Caravan and the Town and Country (both made by the same manufacturer). Buddy was leaning more towards an SUV, so we started looking at those. One we've found we really like is the Chevy Trailblazer. More specifically, the Trailblazer EXT, which today we found out isn't made anymore (not that we'd be buying new anyway). I guess they stopped making it in '05. But we really liked the way it looked. A little closer to when we'd be getting it, we'd like to find one to test drive. The Suburban looked like it'd work too, though it's HUGE. I'd like a vehicle a small child can get into and out of by themselves, since I'm a lazy parent like that.
Speaking of parenting, I probably should go take care of Amy in some way, shape, or form. I think it's past dinnertime and I haven't made dinner yet. Good thing I just have to reaheat Sunday's leftovers. Next time I might check with Buddy and update for him along with my update. So I'll catch up with y'all later!
Complaining:
I don't understand why people keep running to genetics to make excuses for themselves. Any behavior that's unacceptable, science keeps finding "proof" that it's in a person's genetic makeup to do whatever that behavior is. What started all this was a story on the NBC Nightly News about a supposed gene that appears in men who aren't in relationships or that cheat. It's almost as bad as the people who "studied" birds and other animals and found from those studies that people aren't supposed to be monogamous. Anyway, the clip about the study had a little blurb toward the end that other factors such as community, family, and religious beliefs can also make a difference, so it's not all genetics. Like people will listen to that part of the story.
I'm tired of Obama's fear-mongering. That's all I have to say about that.
Update:
Amy's progressing nicely. She's been learning several new signs and she's started using the ones she already knows without prompting. I can't find out why she's been using "cookie" as a sign she might want to nurse, though. As far as motor skills, she's running around and has finally started to lose her frustration while playing with her big Legos. She's also more than happy to color all over Mommy's papers with Mommy's pen as well as her crayons in her notebook. One of the main words she's picked up is "cheese." She says it anytime we rattle something in the fridge or cabinet. We haven't managed to get Amy to sleep on any sort of schedule yet. I'm REALLY hoping we can work that kink out soon. We've been looking at potty training Amy, but we'd like to get her on a more structured eating and sleeping schedule first. One of my weapons to help the bedtime battles is a bedtime routine I've developed. I've not found something to do for naptime. The biggest thing about her bedtime routine is it includes a bath. That's all fine and dandy...unless you want to wash her hair. Anytime you pour water over her head, she freaks. The only thing I haven't tried yet is using the removeable shower head. The weird thing is she'll let me get her head wet by squeezing a washcloth full of water onto her head. So I'm confused.
Our little family's taking a trip to Brown County State Park this weekend. Camping, of course. And we've discovered that the Estes curse survived me changing my name. Every time we've camped it has rained, and this weekend looks to not be disappointing in that regard. Gustav and Hanna are doing something weird that'll give us the rain. Oh well, it's not supposed to rain the whole weekend. We're going camping both as a family vacation and as a celebration of me putting up with Buddy for a year. I mean, uh, for the wonderful event of Buddy and I being married for a year. (Buddy never reads this stuff, I think, so I should be safe...hehe.)
We're looking forward to moving down to somewhere in Johnson county next year. It'll be an apartment, we just don't know where just yet. Our lease isn't up until the start of May. We've also been scouting out how much work we'd have to do before we could buy a house and we got the answer we kind of figured we'd get. We only ran Buddy's credit and it'd take around 3-6 months to just clean up his credit enough to get anywhere near a decent loan. We also don't have anything saved for a down payment. Again, it's not like we were expecting any different. We mainly wanted to figure out where we'd be going from here and an approximate time table.
Another thing we're looking at is getting a second vehicle so I'm not at home alone with Amy with no ride. We've not paid the truck off yet, but we're working on that. It'll be a Christmas present for Buddy. :-) The second one will be the family vehicle, but it'll be primarily mine. We're sort of planning for only two kids, so we don't need a ton of room. We were looking at either a minivan or an SUV, so we started looking at what was out there. My "minivan" of choice has always been an Astro, but I also like the Grand Caravan and the Town and Country (both made by the same manufacturer). Buddy was leaning more towards an SUV, so we started looking at those. One we've found we really like is the Chevy Trailblazer. More specifically, the Trailblazer EXT, which today we found out isn't made anymore (not that we'd be buying new anyway). I guess they stopped making it in '05. But we really liked the way it looked. A little closer to when we'd be getting it, we'd like to find one to test drive. The Suburban looked like it'd work too, though it's HUGE. I'd like a vehicle a small child can get into and out of by themselves, since I'm a lazy parent like that.
Speaking of parenting, I probably should go take care of Amy in some way, shape, or form. I think it's past dinnertime and I haven't made dinner yet. Good thing I just have to reaheat Sunday's leftovers. Next time I might check with Buddy and update for him along with my update. So I'll catch up with y'all later!