Flotsam and jetsam

Big Al and I are snuggling in the living room listening to the rain and the wind outside. And to Griff kicking up a fuss on and off with his dad in the back bedroom.

The weather has been odd. Thirty one day, sixty the next. Windy and wild. We hardly know what to expect. The boys didn't get out today because it was so windy. And you never knew when the rain was going to come.

Jay and I had an invitation to a baby shower Friday night, but, try as I did, we couldn't come up with a baby-sitter. Jay stayed and helped with dinner and baths and headed out for the party and the boys and I settled in. We did our now-standard couch snuggle which is a very delicate balance. Just as Griff was drifting off (Allan was already out) a knock came at the door. You.Must.Be.Kidding. It was nearly nine on a Friday night. I just sat. (Sort of like we used to do when the Jehovah's showed up at the door back home.) Again with the knocking. Fine -- "Go away!" says I. Again with the knocking. By this time, Griff has roused. I set Allan down on the floor. He starts to cry. I peep through the blinds on the door. Nope. I don't know you, Kenny Rogers. Buzz off. "Go away. I don't know you!" Kenny Rogers waves some papers at me. Allan howls. Griff jabbers. "I am putting babies to sleep!!! Go away !!! I don't know you!!! Buzz.Off." Finally Kenny Rogers manages to communicate that he is the guy who is supposed to deliver the formula for Allan. The insurance company has changed providers. And has told poor Kenny that he has to get this to me tonight. Kenny and I made up (he has a four year old and was terribly sorry that he had effed up bedtime. ) Still it was the better part of another hour before both boys were down and out. So much for my early bed time.

Saturday Dad headed out early (ish) with our dining room table. When people hear what Jay does they always say, you must have beautiful furniture. Um. Well. Um. We are the epitome of the cobbler's children having no shoes. The dining room table, while nice, looked like crap. Scratches and rings. You name it. Ridiculous. The last time we had people over and couldn't find a decent table cloth was the end of it, though. So we loaded it up and sent it over to the workshop. It will no doubt look lovely at the end of this, but, as of today, we still have no table. The boys like having the dining room clear, though. While Jay was out this morning, I set up the chairs with blankets over them and we played Cave and Tunnel. Allan was far braver -- he immediately crawled in and out and around everything Griff was far more suspicious and would start in and back out. Chicken.

Miss Miranda came and took care of the boys on Saturday afternoon while I cleaned the upstairs bedroom. We still had boxes of Xmas ornaments out. The floor had places where we had spilled formula and medicine. The whole thing was, in a word, filthy. After three hours of work, it finally was acceptable, though. As God is my witness, it will never be that way again. I went up to use the bathroom last night and Jay had left his socks on the floor and I thought I might commit homicide.

Griffith spent a fair amount of time yesterday stepping up an down on the step that Bailey gave him for Christmas. He was pretty hesitant about letting go of me. In fact, my index finger was purple from him gripping it as he got up and down. As you will see from the pictures, though, he got a lot braver. Up until he banged his forehead on the door. Nice goose-egg, pal.

Team Al and Griff did their first international webcast. Grandma and Grampy got their webcam up and had Jess, Lottie and Joe for the weekend. We set high noon as the time to call. The first hurdle was that they could see us, but not hear us. What ???? Okay, no problem. We worked out that we had turned off the volume on our computer so that it didn't disturb the boys. Problem solved. Sorta. The next problem was that Grampy's mic wasn't working. We never did get that straight. Jay and Grampy were on the phone while the cousins made monkeys of themselves on the video. Still, it was pretty successful for a first outing - the boys were very interested in the antics of their cousins and the cousins seemed amused with the boys. Next time we'll get it all straight.

The rest of the day was in-and-out. I would go for a while, then Jay. Griffith was an angel. He napped in the morning and again in the afternoon. Allan, on the other hand, is my difficult child. Despite being tired, he refused to sleep. And didn't want his brother to sleep, either. Griff did his typical fight, fight, fight, collapse. Allan, on the other hand, whinged and whirled and kicked and squawled. Every time that Griff was close to out, Allan would howl or something. I finally got Griff laid down and went to get a fresh diaper for Allan. I first had to disengage Mr. Busy-fingers from pulling his brother's curls (jealousy is a cardinal sin, Allan). Then, by the time I made it in to the nursery and back with a diaper, Allan had crawled across the floor and was milliseconds from a "slam dunk" on the basketball game which would have caused all sorts of commotion. BRAT.

What else? Griffith has learned to say "Al" and calls for his brother when he isn't in the room. Allan has become fascinated with the garage and will have cars go around the curves over and over again.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

The boys are looking forward to this weekend when they go to stay with cousin Bailey while Dad makes bookshelves for the living room. Bailey took care of Jacob Scott last weekend and it kept her quite busy. She was already thinking ahead to the boys' visit, though, and told her mom,
"And there are going to be TWO!'