Miles of Smiles

Tristan was always a rather solemn child. Not bad tempered by any means, he was just always an observer. He mostly smiled at home and with people he knew, occasionally at particularly friendly strangers, and virtually NEVER in any situation that was even slightly new and the focus was on him. In fact, he’s still like that to this day, which explains why in three years we’ve only gotten one or two professional photos of him wearing an actual smile. Naiyah, on the other had, is a whole ‘nother story. The girl is seriously smiley. She smiles at people of course, but also at her toys, her reflection, animals, and occasionally even at some internal source of amusement. It’s great, but at the same time it always surprises me. Everytime I turn around it seems she’s got a big gummy grin goin’ on. I’m just waiting for the day when she gets the giggles to go with!

Right around two months. Please excuse the fuzziness of the photo.

At around 3 months.

Yesterday. The smiles are still there, but definitely getting more creative.

And for those of you who think this post was just a reason to post cute pics, you may be onto something there…in fact here's some more!

And of course, one of baby Tristan for good measure. Wow, he was so bald compared to Naiyah! He looks like a bald little old man here.

The Magic Boob

"Once upon a time there was a little baby who was crying, as small babies often do. Usually she would cry and then stop after being picked up, but this day she was inconsolable. Rocking didn't help, swaddling didn't help, NOTHING helped. And then as a last resort, despite knowing that the little baby wasn't hungry, the mommy decided to try feeding her. Success! It seems that there was one thing in the whole world that the little baby loved above all else, The Magic Boob. From that day forward, in the times of direst need, the mommy would fall back on The Magic Boob to comfort the baby. The End."


And so, if any of you ever hear me refer to The Magic Boob, you will know where the term came from. Despite my ambivalency towards breastfeeding, The Magic Boob has made it all worthwhile. I may hate it when I have to whip it out as a last resort comfort measure, but at least it'll buy me peace and quiet when all else fails!

At Least He’s Honest

The other day I had to run an errand to Michael’s with both kids in tow. As you probably have gathered by now, Tristan can be challenging (although he is usually better in public, thankfully). So we got about halfway through the shopping trip and he started getting antsy. First it was just touching things. Then it was putting things in my purse and me having to explain that he couldn’t do that unless we paid for it FIRST (my little klepto). Then it was a potty trip. I swear, I’m lucky I even managed to get the things on my list before total meltdown! Finally we reached the cash register. Remember, I was burdened with the baby carrier, my purse, and the basket of stuff. All of which left me one hand short and somewhat frazzled. As I dug around in my purse for my card while trying to juggle stuff, carrier and kid, Tristan decided to investigate (and by investigate I mean destroy) an arrangement featuring fake grapes. Curiosity at its finest! I hauled him back just before his sticky little fingers closed on the lowest "grape", and asked with exasperation, "Are you going to LISTEN to me???" Nonchalantly he replied "no" and turned back to the display. As I finished up with the cashier – who was at least trying to keep her giggles under control – I rolled my eyes and sighed. At least the kid's honest, right?

I think I’m starting to get used to people laughing at me when Tristan’s around.

Tristan Turns 3

Wow, I can't believe how fast time goes by. My first baby turned 3 on Friday, and it still seems like it's too soon for him to be so big! Tom and I both took the day off work so we could take him to the zoo to celebrate. They don't charge for kids 2 and under, so whether we had to pay for Tristan was a gray area. Apparently, he doesn't look 2 anymore. When I said just 2 adults the guy looked at Tristan, looked at us, looked at Tristan again and then asked, "Are both kids under 2?". Lol. Well, he was still 2 until 1:30 that day! Luckily, the guy was very nice and said he could get in for free since it was his special day. We were met there by two of my friends from work, and my mom brought her daycare with all his little friends. After wandering around for a couple of hours, we had lunch and cupcakes (from Trophy Cupcakes, yum!) and presents. All was well until Tristan tried to eat the candle from his cupcake! They had little sugar animals on top, so after he ate that he apparently decided the candle was next. He literally ate half of it before realizing that it wasn't food and then wouldn't touch anymore of the cupcake. He just kept repeating, "it's yucky!". Finally I swiped my finger in the frosting and shoved it in his mouth to get him to try it. Then the cupcake was history! We all had a great time, and it was a wonderful day all around.


Notice the rainboots. They make him happy. I miss the days when wearing weird clothing was all it took to make me happy, don't you?



Naiyah sitting in the stroller like a big girl.



The apparently edible candle.



Kids 'n cupcakes.



Presents!



Tristan, Grandpa and Daddy playing at the turtle shell.



Naiyah and mommy. I find it entertaining that the sun has given me sort of an angelic glow.



Last but not least, the hairy donkey. I think this animal was the best part of the zoo! For those of you who are wondering, it was with the farm animals. I had no idea that there were farm animals at the zoo, it seems odd to me but it sure made Tristan happy. (Except the smell - the whole time we were looking at the cow he was talking about poop.) The whole ride there he kept saying he wanted to see a cow, and I didn't think there were any. Guess that shows what I know!

When No Means Yes

Lately, Tristan is very focused on the word "no". almost anything anyone asks him will be met with a quick negative. Loud, quiet, whiny, rude, polite, you name it and we’ve gotten it when it comes to this word. You could call it the automatic response of a preschooler, I guess. I had no idea one simple word could be said with such variety! Humor enters the situation when he really wants to say yes, but no pops out instead. He actually has to stop mid-no and force himself to say yes! IE, "n- yes!" Sometimes, no even means yes. I personally think this is because no has become so ingrained and habitual for him that he sticks with it regardless of what he actually means. I’ve noticed that this particular type of no is usually used when he doesn’t WANT to do something, but he knows an answer is required. So, he will say no (in whichever verbal style happens to be the flavor of the day) and then in fact listen to what I’ve asked him to do. Nice bit of sleuthing on my part to figure this out, isn’t it? I should win an award or something. I guess I’ll have to settle for the satisfaction of knowing that I’m getting early practice for those teenage years ahead…

The Promised Explanation

So, as promised, here is the explanation of the blog title. As many (if not all) of you know we have two small children. One is considerably smaller than the other – 3.5 months – and as such really doesn’t do much yet besides the usual eat, poop, sleep and cry. Ok, so she smiles now too. But it’s the other one who inspired the name of the blog.

Tristan aka AMOS.

Meet our resident Anarchist and Master of Chaos (AMOS). An occasionally sweet, often entertaining, and always defiant nearly three year old. Sounds like so much fun, doesn’t it? True, there’s often humor to be found in the situation. Unfortunately, it’s usually of the ‘oh-my-god-I-shouldn’t-be-laughing-but-that’s-just-too-damn-funny’ variety. Which then, AMOS being the perceptive child that he is picks up on and then thinks whatever he just did is not only funny, it also should be repeated at a future date. Take the most recent example. The following is an excerpt from the Burns daily life:

Scene: AMOS comes running out of the bathroom and into the front yard of my mom’s house sans pants and underwear.
Mommy: Tristan, please go back inside and put your clothes on.
AMOS: No. (Runs further into the driveway looking for Grandma)
Mommy: TRISTAN! Go back inside and PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON!
AMOS: NOOOO!
Grandma: Go put your clothes on, Tristan.
He then heads towards the front door, but stops on the sidewalk to examine some bugs.
Mommy: Tristan, you don’t want everyone to see your bare bottom do you??
He stops to consider this, proceeds to turn until his bum is facing the street, then manages to contort his wiry little body to stick his bare-naked butt out front and center.
Mommy: Speechless with laughter.

So, this is an example of why he has earned the nickname AMOS. I’d like to think that this defiance is wholly attributable to the “terrible twos”, and I am holding out hope that it will magically vanish when he turns three next Friday. Not a lot of hope, but a mommy can dream right?

(For the record, the way I got him inside to put his clothes on - eventually - without further argument is with the threat that bugs were going to crawl up his butt. I realize it might not be the most orthodox parenting technique, but hey, it’s not like it’ll cause permanent damage to his psyche!)

There's a new blogger in town!

Well, I finally caved and set up a blog. I figure, I enjoy reading everyone else's so I probably should contribute. Hopefully I'll manage to carve out the time to update it reasonably often. A few sharp prods from the audience may be required now and then, however! Feel free to prod as often as necessary. What you'll receive in return will be family updates, stories, and photos, as well as random nonsense. Just a fair warning, there will likely be a great deal of random nonsense, as things tend to occur to me at odd times and I often feel the need to share them with others.

Welcome to our anarchy! (Yes, I will explain the title of the blog soon.)