My Beautiful Wife

Shaunie is taking care of a not-sleeping-well-because-he-might-have-an-ear-infection-Gordon right now and she doesn't have time to post pictures of her adorable new haircut...because she's been "structuring" her Relief Society Lesson for tomorrow.  So I thought I'd post a couple pics, I think she looks incredible, she is incredible. I thought she looked great before the cut too, but sometimes a new haircut or some other small change re-emphasizes the beauty that we sometimes forget is there because we see it every day. An old, dead, Russian critic named Victor Shklovsky called this process defamiliarization. Here is a snippet from his wonderful essay, "Art as Technique":

"Habitualization devours objects, clothes, furniture, one's wife and the fear of war. 'If all the complex lives of many go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been.'

Art exists to help us recover the sensation of life; it exists to make us feel things, to make the stone stony. The end of art is to give a sensation of the object as seen, not as recognized. 

The technique of art is to make things "unfamiliar," to make forms obscure, so as to increase the difficulty and the duration of perception. The act of perception in art is an end in itself and must be prolonged. In art, it is our experience of the process of construction that counts, not the finished product."

I submit that this haircut is art and that it is making Shaunie Shaunie, or perhaps I should say that the haircut emphasizes her Shaunieness, which, when we were dating, I referred to as The Cuteness.  Does that make sense?  Anyhow, she is bee-ootiful, isn't she?  I'm a very, very lucky man and I'm glad that she got a haircut that she loves.

The girls wanted to pose with the "new do" and show off the cool scripture charts they made at a primary activity today.

Hatchlings

They hatched sometime in the last 24 hours. They are TINY. One of thier heads, from side to side, only measures about 1/3" I'm guessing. I was generous on the nest size too, it's just about 2" wide. The eggs were the size of jelly beans. They are a dark purple color, with longer gold-colored feathers poking out of thier bodies. This picture is good for seeing what the nest is made of too: spider webs, eucalyptus tree bark, fine grasses, and moss. It's nice and fuzzy inside, at least it looks that way, I'm not going to touch it and find out until the birds are gone for good.

Nature!

When we first got to California, I considered it a pretty sterile environment, as far as animals go. There were, and still are, very few flying bugs. We hardly see houseflies, and get the occasional silverfish (never saw these until I moved here, small, and non-biting).

 We have had a few dandy-long legged house spiders which move at the speed of molasses, so they are easy to catch. (We do get GIGANTIC garden spiders though, and black widows, both outside thankfully). I saw my first cockroach a week or two back, and would have crushed it, but I just cannot stand the "crunching" sound large bugs make. It gives me the willies like nothing else does.

 There is quite a large bunny population, and they have been fun to watch nibble on the grass in the late afternoons and evenings here. I thought they had very few to no predators around. Enter the bobcat.

There is one that prowls the apartment complex, hunting the multitude of bunnies. (He or she is very shy, hasn't bothered anyone, so I don't think they're making a huge effort to catch it).  The bobcat leaves the mostly-eaten carcasses around sometimes, and it allows me to teach my kids about the natural order of things, so I don't mind too much.


Hummingbirds are year-round residents here. The last few weeks, as I came to the bottom of my stairwell, this hummingbird would fly past me. I didn't think anything of it until yesterday, when upon inspection, I found a tiny nest.

It's not more than 3 inches wide. The nest is right at my eye level, so I can peek in and check on it. So cool. Growing up, I only saw hummingbirds a few times a year, and just a few of them. So this is quite a treat. The kids are really excited and I will keep putting  up pictures of its progress. I think the above-pictured hummingbird is like the one taking up residence in the garden below, but I can't be sure because I haven't been able to get close enough. Those little things fly so fast.

'Yes, I love technology...

...but not as much as Mom and Dad, but still I love technology...always and forever.' I'm talking about Gordon here. The level of love for his parents is equaled by his love for electronics. The sisters, as I now refer to them, are on a lower tier I believe. This kid is nuts. (Someone tell me if I have an obsessed child or not).

Every day is a battle. To see who will win the technological territory in our tiny apartment.

Skirmish sites: The X-box, which we now must unplug after every use, lest he try to put in his own movie, which he has done before, and worsen the vibrating noise he somehow created.
The computer desk. This kid has EXCELLENT climbing skills. As good as his sisters. There is little I can do to keep him off stuff short of removing all chairs from the apartment. He can pull them out. Push them to where he wants. His greatest morning desire is to climb atop the computer desk, hoping the compy is still on from Ben being up late, and scrolling through whatever happens to be on the computer screen. He knows how to use that scrolling button well. Then he sits and whacks the keyboard, until the computer is chirping for mercy.
The cell phone. This is a big one. I cannot check Voicemail or text with him in view or earshot, because his super-sonic hearing will pick up on most little cell phone noises. We keep our phone on "flight mode" (no broadcasting/receiving ability) most times so he doesn't access the internet and sign up for Yahoo mail. I've caught him three times accepting the user agreement for an email account. He can text too. It's gibberish, but it gets sent.
The dinner table. Ben used to put his laptop here when not in use. Now, if we've won the skirmishes of the previous three places, he heads here hoping he'll find the compy. He opens it, and hits buttons until I take it away. Then he'll head for my sewing machine. Ben now stores the lappy under the TV stand. But yesterday morning the boy figured out it was under there and pulled it out using the power cord. So now it may not be safe there either.
The bathroom. All those wonderful gadgets, electric toothbrushes, shavers, and beard trimmers are a delight to him. We have a not-childproof-friendly bathroom, so he just pulls on the cords until he knocks them down, pulls the accessories off, puts a few in the garbage, and crawls off with a toothbrush head in his mouth. Yum.
The van control panel. When we take a car ride, he's got to have his "fix" of messing with the controls, honking the horn, etc. Otherwise, trying to get him in his car seat is like breaking a board in half. Literally.
The cost of me winning the skirmish: A screaming, thrashing, full-on tantrum. A real privilege to watch.

The only machine he can play with and not break? The vacuum cleaner. He runs for it. My girls ran away from it screaming until about 10 months ago. For him, it's almost endless amounts of entertainment.

Gordon was such a mild, sweet baby. Now I know he was saving up all his tantrums and naughtiness for after his first birthday. I did not know the meaning of a "busy kid" until now. Maybe I'm raising the next Bill Gates. Or Steve Jobs. Or a kid who's going to need techie rehab by the time he's four. It must be in the genes. I have no other explanation for it. He does say "Mommy!" in the cutest way though, and a lot. That mostly makes up for the craziness.

Random Note: When we were reading scriptures tonight, a verse mentioned something about earth and "the face thereof." A few seconds later, we hear Jillian quietly mutter, "The earth doesn't have a face," like we were a couple of nut jobs for saying such a thing. She is another post.

Gordon's Mother's Day Gift

Seaworld with little kids

We got cheap tickets to Sea World, $6 a kid, because we were part of an educational group. All the rides were closed for the first few hours, and the first show we had to watch was the Sea Lions Live. 

This is what Gordon thought of the show. "Climb!"

Here's  the kiddos, we went with my friend Amy and her son Lincoln.

Flamingos. "My favorite bird!" said Evelyn.

We saw the shark exhibit, which was cool but absolutely packed, so the little kids couldn't get a very good peek. The girls didn't care for the 'quickening heartbeat' sound playing over the speakers in the exhibit.  The different aquariums were cool, but little kids aren't into reading descriptions about fish and stuff. We didn't make it into the arctic exhibit at all :( . Shamu was awesome though. 

The kids sat through all of this show. They loved it. Even with the super-cheesy music, it was still pretty cool.

The kids loved the Sesame Street themed area of the park, we could have spent the whole day there. This was the only area where they could really enjoy the rides. This large net climber was really big, Evelyn and Lincoln got up it, but Jilly couldn't. 

We rode this, you could only take 2 people per car, so I took Jilly first while Evelyn waited, but when it was Ev's turn, Jilly had a complete meltdown about waiting without me, so 'Marco,' one of the guys running the ride, rode the ride with Evelyn. Her little head is sticking out of the orange car. He was nice and Evelyn was talking his ear off during the ride.

And that was our day trip. We were there for about 5 hours, and that was enough for Gordon. I would have liked to stay and look at some more stuff, but kids won't wait! When they're older, it will be a really fun place to visit. 

Saturday

I have kids. 3 sometimes crazy ones. And my lack of blogging lately has been due to this: life with children. I'm busy, busy, busy, because they are so busy. The girls went to a friend's house to play yesterday, and I went shopping at Target with Gordon. Here are my random shopping thoughts:

Both pairs of glasses that I wear are currently broken due to one adorable boy. Both pairs have been fixed at least twice. I'm hoping they can take another repair job. Ben says I should "invest" in a really nice pair of sunglasses. Between me and kids though, they won't last.

I like Milano mint cookies. I ate half the bag on the way home from shopping.

Keeping a small apartment clean is a lot of work.

Shopping with one child is easy. If it's not late afternoon. I ended up opening the snacks I was buying and the grabber cups I bought to hold the snacks.

I'm going to attempt Seaworld (without Ben) this week. I hope I survive.

Evelyn is so ready for kindergarten. I'm half-way through registering her. I have mixed emotions about letting her go, but she will love it. Especially the lunchbox she is anticipating for her birthday.

I'm going to break down and get a gym membership. I have been putting it off since we moved here, mostly because I don't want to spend the money. I'm a cheapskate. While I don't need to lose weight, I have realized that if I had to run for more than 10 minutes right now, I would probably die.

Gordon is in that hard transition between one and two naps. He is now waking up more at night than he has for a few months. I envy parents whose kids seem to fall into a good sleep pattern without much screaming involved.

The spring season in California has been the one season that most closely resembles what I grew up with: 60-70 degrees and windy.

I was obviously only shopping with one kid. I actually had the time or clarity to think! There will be pictures from Seaworld. Sometime in the next two weeks is my goal.