I know most writings here are usually reserved for the goings on of Miles, but the other kids have some crazy things happening in their world, so I thought I'd expand the horizon a bit.
First we have Chelsea, our poor little crack baby. We call her the crack baby because she was found in a less than desirable area of town eating hot dogs out of a convenience store dumpster. So we imagined a hard life, living on the streets, doing what it takes for a meal. After we
adopted her we discovered her tic - she has these little seizures, gets a blank stare and goes a little sideways whenever she gets worked up over something.
So now she's found something that gets her worked up all day long. Chelsea has a new obsession. She has created an imaginary friend who hides in the monkey grass just beyond her fence. Anytime she's outside now, she races around to the corner and yells at "it". I've tried clearing some brush and poking around in the grass, but I have no idea what she's found. I can only assume something has burrowed and she can smell it. She did go nuts over a small snakeskin in the grass a few weeks ago. Hopefully what she's cornered is not the now-full-grown snake!!
I haven't even mentioned that she cornered and killed what I think was a
prairie dog [CORRECTION: it was actually a
groundhog] under our front shrubs. That was a lovely experience. I heard her barking so Apollo and I went outside. The two of them cornered it and .... well, that's all I want to expand upon that. The girl does put her skills from living on the street to use!
Apollo is our other big baby. After realizing that a food allergy has probably caused the excessive yeast on his skin and in his ears, we've put him on an extreme allergen-reducing diet. He now eats nothing but pinto beans and sweet potatoes. Thankfully I can just mix up cans of the stuff, no cooking needed, but he does have some quirky preferences. The items must be mushed together then mounded in a broad, flat bowl. We've gone through meals pureed in the processor (by me), spoon fed (by me), and hand fed (by me). Now he's eating it all on his own, but we have to physically separate Chelsea from his food. They both want what the other is eating!
We can already tell a difference in Apollo. He's a little less cranky and enjoys spending more time outside, I guess he's less itchy. Also it has NOT had the expected side effect of extreme gassiness...
yet. We'll see how that goes! We will eventually try to switch him to some allergen-friendly dog-food, but for now I'm blending up the slop.
We were concerned for the last week that Miles had killed his "may-toe" plants. But despite all appearances to the contrary, we have ripening fruit! It threw daddy for a loop, as he thought we were growing big 'ole maters, when in fact they are cherry tomatoes. He thought we had a while to go. I figured that would be more fun for Miles, we could sit outside and eat them off the vine. You can see that the lack of rain in the area has made the foliage wither and brown, but those tenacious Ts are hanging in there! We're also growing some "Mr. Big" peas. Truly! When I saw the packet, I had to have them. They are growing pretty well, but I've yet to see pods, so who knows if we'll get to eat them this summer.
Miles is playing farmer inside the house as well. He's back as a Barnyard fan, but it's more about parking his various "trak-tors" in the barn. He's added sound effects to the vehicles and enjoys driving them all over his new-found highways - mommy's legs, daddy's arms... you get the idea. It's fun playing with him. He definitely knows what he wants to do and we try so hard to follow his lead and play the right game. But sometimes we get the "No, mommy" and he'll move the left-leg superhighway back toward the bed. Too cute!
We had a fun, yet brief, visit from BeeBe and PopPop on Tuesday night. They'll stop for a longer visit on the way back after the 4th. They brought Miles an early birthday present, to be unveiled upon their return trip. Fun fun!!
