A List for Tuesday

I like fairy tales, this you know. Out of support for the genre I watch Once Upon a Time and Grimm. I have issues with both of these shows. Since I have nowhere else to vent, you're getting it here!

10 Things That Bug Me About Once Upon A Time
1. The whole premise is suppose to be that in the real world there are no happy endings. So why at the end of almost every episode do the people live happily ever after?
2. Prince Charming and Snow White are having in affair. I'm not okay with that.
3. Regina/Evil Queen is SO one-dimensional. Is she just pure evil? Because that's boring.
4. Could we put Emma in some pants that don't look like they were painted on?
5. They killed off the only good-looking guy in the whole town.
6. Why does everything have to be such a big mystery? I know it's from the same guys who did Lost, but it annoys me to have to guess about nearly everything important.
7. Emma has very little personality.
8. The kid who plays Henry can't act.
9. The pictures in the story book are ugly! There was a great opportunity to do something amazing and they just little it slip by.
10. The scenes in the fairy tale world are almost always super-cheesy.

10 Things That Bug Me About Grimm
1. Monroe is the only character I like.
2. They need to add a female lead who isn't a whiny wet blanket like Juliet.
3. There's no character development at all.
4. Could we kill Juliet already? She serves no purpose I can see.
5. There are countless fairy tales out there and halfway through the first season they inexplicably based an episode off of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. What?
6. Nick needs to have more than one emotion.
7. More Monroe!
8. Seriously, ADD MORE WOMEN!
9. A little less blood and gore, please.
10. The writing is good, but it needs to take it up a notch if they want anyone to watch after this season.

People at ABC and NBC please address these concerns immediately or I might have to quit watching. Grimm especially is on the way off my watch list if stuff doesn't change soon.

My Little Kewpie

Today is Dane's 9-month birthday! To mark the occasion I decided to do a post about him. I'll give you all his stats after his pediatrician appointment on Tuesday, but this will be all about him as a little person.

A few weeks ago my mom-in-law pointed out how much Dane looks like a Kewpie Doll. It is absolutely true! Not only does he have that little smile and look at you sideways, but his hair sticks up on top and at the sides too. I have taken to thinking of him as my little kewpie.

I try not to compare Dutch and Dane to each other, but in some ways they are so opposite that I can't help it. Dutch didn't walk until he was almost 18 months. He had absolutely no interest in it at all. Dane, however, has decided that he wants nothing more in this world than to walk. The other day he let go of the couch and took two steps backwards before he fell on his rump. I scolded him and told him that he can't walk yet! I'm not ready for him to grow up that fast! If anyone knows how to make him stop (without causing physical or psychological harm) I would love to know.

He is such a good eater. In fact, if you are eating something and you don't share with him he gets pretty upset about it. He loves to sit in his highchair at the dinner table and eat with all of us. This leads to him needing a bath every night before bed, which he also loves. At his Aunt Cari's house over Christmas he had his first bath in a real tub and he hasn't looked back since!

Mellow is still the best word to describe him. He's just so easy-going and happy. I love watching him watch the world around him and taking it all in. He's a looker, that's for sure. Uncle Zaque finds this very creepy, since most of the time Dane is looking at him.

He likes to "talk" a lot now. He sort of gurgles and mumbles, but every once in a while he'll say da-da and just keep repeating it. He'll also do this little moan/whine noise that lasts until he runs out of air, then he takes a breath and starts all over again. This is funny or annoying, depending on how tired I am.

His enormous blue eyes are by far my favorite of his features. They are round and crystally blue with silver lines all through them. I love when he looks at me and smiles - his whole face lights up and it makes me just want to squish him.

Now I don't want to complain about him, but I do want to acknowledge that he's not entirely perfect (though to me he is). The one trouble I've been having with him is napping. He doesn't want to do it. The problem is that he still needs them and if he doesn't get one he melts into this very sensitive little ball of tears. When he's tired everything is incredibly upsetting and he just wants to be held, but the minute he starts to fall asleep in my arms he jolts himself up and demands to be put down. Silly baby. Of course I wouldn't want to sleep either if this is how I slept: 

How uncomfortable does that look?

Yes, he really was asleep when I took this!

New Pictures of the House

If you look at this blog post: http://ourblinddog.blogspot.com/2011/09/because-my-sister-is-loser.html then you will see the "before" pictures of our house. As in, before we moved in. Today I walked around the house and took pictures. I didn't clean the house beforehand which will, no doubt, horrify Chris, but I wanted to post these pictures. And I'm lazy. Also Dane gave himself a fat lip and has needed a lot of extra love this morning. Anyway, here they are!

 The boys' room.

(See Heidi, they're on the wall!)

 Our bedroom.

Notice my side of the bed is messy and Chris's is spotless.

 Living Room

 Living Room

I need to do something about the picture wall.

When Bo bumps into the wall it skews the pictures

so they're in a constant state of crooked.

 Chris's desk in the Living Room

and pretty much all of my Valentine's decorations

(I can't find any of my others!)

 Kitchen

 Kitchen

 Other side of the kitchen

 Play-room/Guest Bedroom

 This is a wall of the Play-room that will someday be an

Under the Stairs Nook!

 New couch in the Family Room!

 Office/Workshop

 My birthday present from Heather sitting on top of my typewriter.

 Family Room

Family Room

And Dutch isn't wearing pants.

As always.

Sorry the pictures aren't better, but my camera really sucks. Unfortunately I have more important things to spend money on - like saving it for writing retreats this summer!

A List for Tuesday

Random Things:

• Dane is trying to walk. I would like this to stop. I am not ready for my baby to walk.
• Dane says "Da-da" all the time now. He's really quite chatty.
• Dutch is doing really great with his potty training. We're almost there!
• Dutch's new favorite thing is Legos. He's no longer a Duplo guy, he's Legos or nothing!
• Chris turned 31 on Sunday.
• I turned 29 a week ago.
• I want to learn more about cartography.
• Mike Rowe is pretty good looking for an older man.
• I like days when I can be a good friend.
• I'm going to be teaching Fairy Tales for Writers at Seton Hill University's Writing Retreat in June.
• 2012 is going to be the Year of the Writer!
• I love Valentine's Day and I'm always excited to make valentine's for family and friends.
• I really love the TV show Once Upon a Time.
• I adore Monroe on the TV show Grimm, although if the don't add a real female character soon I might have to stop watching.
• We got a new couch!
• Life is good.

New Couch

We bought a sectional for our downstairs TV room and it arrived today! They were set to come between 8 and 12 so I hopped in the shower just before 8, thinking there was no way they would be on time. A few minutes later they knocked on the door! The delivery guys were both very nice and did a great job getting it downstairs and putting it together for me. One of them could not get enough of Bo and that made me like him even more.

This weekend I will take pictures throughout the house and show you the progress we've made in each room and the plans we have for the future. Today, however, I am going to sit on our new couch with Dutch and Dane and watch a movie!

Christmas 2011 Final Installment

This is the last post I'm going to do about Christmas because it's the middle of January and it's time to move on.

 Zaque is a little creeped out by Dane's staring.

He ALWAYS stares at Zaque!

 Dane playing in the chaos of Christmas morning.

 Bah and Dutch with Dutch's favorite gift:

a Schwinn trike!

 In Texas my nephews Noah and Nathanael always included Dutch.

They gave him a controller while they played the Wii

(even though it didn't work, he still loved it)!

Dane enjoying delicious mini blueberry muffins

for my niece Carlye's birthday.

Christmas 2011 Part Three

Here is Christmas from Dutch's point of view. Brace yourself for another installment of Pictures By Dutch: Christmas Edition.

 Grandma Honey

 Self-portrait

 Aunt Dawn and Baby Xander

 Uncle Zaque and Aunt Amy holding Dane-Dane

 Bah

 Daddy and Mama

Mama again

Not bad for a 3 1/2 year old, right?

Christmas 2011 Part Two

Here are a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

 Bah with Xander and Dane a few days before Christmas.

 Dane following in his brother's footsteps
and eating a cuties orange.

 Josh taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.

 A few of the "gingerbread" houses we made for the Davis family gingerbread party

Dutch playing under the table.

Christmas 2011 Part One

It was pointed out to me by my very mean sister (Heather) that I hadn't posted anything on my blog about Christmas. This was for a number of reasons, but the biggest one was that Indy had chewed through my computer power cord and my laptop was dead. Since my father-in-law Greg is a genius he was able to fix it and  now I can post all the pictures I haven't been able to yet.

 My sister Heidi made both of the boys wooden letters
of their names. Dutch had fun putting them on the tree
before we gave them a more permanent home
on the wall of their room.

 Dane loved Grandma Honey's Christmas tree.

Doesn't the one below just make your back hurt?

I found Dane like this more than once.

He would contort himself in any number of ways to get 

to the lights decorating our window.

Making the Hard Decisions

There are times when I hate being a responsible adult. Especially when I have to make hard decisions.

Last night Dutch came and got into bed with me. It scared Indy. He scratched and bit at Dutch. Today we had to give him the opportunity to find a new home where he would be more comfortable. A home without kids.

I'm sad, but it's for the best.

A List for Tuesday

My New Year's Resolutions for 2012
(in no particular order)

1. Read all the books on my shelves that I own but have never read.
2. Go to every temple in Utah.
3. Send The Stone Flower (Adelaide and Eagan's book) to potential agents/editors.
4. Receive 20 rejections for the above book this year. (It might seem pessimistic to count rejections, but one of my former teachers told me that every rejection brings you closer to the acceptance. And to get rejected you have to actually be sending everything out, so it's not as pessimistic as it sounds.)
5. Lose some weight (actual poundage I'll keep to myself).
6. Finish another book.
7. Get more organized.

What are your resolutions?