preaching on the burning shore

hey there. recently, liam and i went on a long, strange trip during which we actually TRAVELED BACK IN TIME. i'm not kidding. we boarded an airplane at 9:25 in the morning forticus time, but after disembarking after 4 and a half hours, it was only 10:35 in the morning. freaky! where did those extra 3 hours go? we may never know. it's TIME TRAVEL, BABY!

i'm sorry? time zones? you must be some kind of crazy person.

anyway, king gorilla and i took a trip to san diego to visit my brother matt and liam's cousin gabe. you see, i finally got tired of liam woefully lamenting, "i never get to see my cousin gabe!" so we planned a trip, crashed at johnny and erin's for the night, and got a convenient ride to the airport from erin (they live a short drive from midway).

the plane was on time, liam got his window seat, and after a minimum of fuss, we were on our way to the left coast.


the view out the window had liam transfixed for a while. then he remembered he owned a ds, and that transfixed him for a longer while.



we made it to san diego with no complications and were met by matt and gabe. we first drove to matt's house in nearby el cajon. fun facts: el cajon (translation: "the box") is located in the big box valley. back in the mission days, the padres (not the baseball team) utilized the valley as pastureland, as the surrounding hills both prevented cattle from straying and gathered the minimal rainfall to irrigate crops at the valley's center. now you know something you didn't know 1 minute ago, unless you already knew that (and if my fun facts are wrong, blame the city of el cajon's website, not me). after dropping off our gear and making a phone call, we went out for quesadillas and burritos, then journeyed to the fantastic san diego zoo. that's right, people: we had lunch around noon and before going to the zoo. nutty, but that's southern california for you!

some weird facts about san diego: people there change lanes with the frequency of a ham radio yet never appear to check their blind spot, they find philip rivers to be a person to emulate and respect, a lot of them remove the grass in their yards and install astroturf (honest), and they take urban sprawl to such a ridiculous extreme that it makes carpentersville seem like plymouth. but lordy, do i wish there were hills like that around here.

here's a pic of liam and gabe, taken during a brief stop on our drive:


so we made it to the zoo. animals were viewed. liam liked the pandas and polar bears, while gabe favored the yellow boa (python?) and meerkats. both loved watching the monkeys that chased the otters around their shared habitat, and the koalas were a big hit. and that weird thing that looks like a zebra on the bottom is called an okapi.








this pic is cool, as gabe looks like he's patting the submerged hippo on the nose. well, i think it's cool, and i can post whatever pictures i want. deal with it.


some other pics: liam is a harbor seal, the boys fly a helicopter, the boys ride a smilodon, and the boys sample some tiger language.






after that, we went back to el cajon to grill and put two exhausted kids to bed. the next day: the beach!!!!!1!11!!1!eleventyone!!






liam has been to the beach a number of times, but that beach is on lake michigan (previous posts). he's never experienced salt water before, and when a wave dumped him and he got a mouthful of water, he was shocked. "the pacific ocean tastes awful!" after a while i heard his teeth chattering, and i realized the kid was BLUE. so i took him out to warm up, and that's when the sand castle construction began. well, to be more accurate, it wasn't really a sand castle, but a series of raised roads, ramps, and bridges connecting numerous rocks. the construction occupied the boys (and adults) for a couple of hours. it might be kinda hard to see in these pics, but take my word for it that it was IMPRESSIVE.




neat: the coastal amtrak line passes through the estuary just to the east of the pacific coast highway which borders the beach. see the cool wooden trestle bridge? then it proceeds under the pch and up the coast on tracks set right up on the cliffs.


after traveling back to el cajon, lunch, and naps, matt had to go do his radio show, so the boys got some serious purposeless hanging-out time. they spent it playing liam's ds. shocking, i know. then gabe, liam, and i took matt's 4-runner to the radio station (matt had driven his sti). the trip took much less time than anticipated, so the boys killed some energy playing football and other games outside the building housing the studio.



we then went out for pizza and beer. man, did those kids drink a lot of beer. then home for sleep. the next morning was spent playing soccer, wrestling, taking some brotherly/cousinly pics, eating a late breakfast/early lunch, and shopping. then it was off to the airport for the journey back.




on this flight, liam and i traveled forward in time. so strange. but the plane was on time, johnny gave us a ride to his house and our car, and we were back to plymouth in a couple of hours. a quick but exciting trip, and one i hope liam doesn't forget for at least a few weeks. thanks to j&e for helping out, and especially to matt and gabe for being such welcoming hosts.

oh, and dolores and charlie say hi.

henry at 11 months

He's got teeth and he's not afraid to use them! So far, Henry has gotten his two bottom teeth in, and one of his new favorite pastimes is gnawing on everything in sight (something he has in common with Charlie). He is still doing the army crawl, but he's really fast, and before we know it, he's across two rooms and has pulled himself up and is standing at the gate to taunt the puppy beyond. Once or twice, he's managed to stand by himself for a few seconds, and he's definitely cruising along all the furniture, so walking isn't too far in his future.

The biggest thing about Henry is that he's just so happy with life. He wakes up every morning and sings a happy babble song until I come get him, and he smiles and laughs his way through each day. Mike and I are both fairly cheerful people, but Henry amplifies it to an incredible degree. It's so fun just to watch him.

Next up is the one-year mark. Max has become convinced that once he hits his birthday, Henry will magically be able to talk to us. I keep trying to tell him that's it's one word at a time for a while, but I don't think the message is getting through. I guess Max just can't wait to have a deep and compelling conversation with his little brother, probably about their shared love for watching Mario Bros. video games.

Keep scrolling for some more pictures of our very mobile little man.

Previously: one month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months, 10 months.

all dressed up

Saturday, my cousin Tara got married, and I thought it might be a good time to take a picture of the whole family, or even parts thereof. So here we are:

yeah, write!

I entered six samples from circus forticus into this analyzer that purports to tell you what famous author your writing style is most similar to. James Joyce popped up three times, along with once each for Stephen King, Ian Fleming, and Dan Brown.

What does this mean? That my writing is mostly confusing/snobby enough that I require many footnotes, and is by turns horrifying, suspenseful, and mysterious? That sounds just like me. Really. Just. Like. Me.

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

a night to remember (mostly as a cautionary tale)

Dear readers, if you're thinking about having three kids, two cats, and a puppy while working an opposite shift from that of your spouse, you'll probably reconsider after you read the saga of my Monday night. Take a peek:

I picked the boys up, raced home to take the dog out, raced to Walmart to buy white t-shirts (they were in a 50s-themed 4H parade), raced to my parents' house to get ready and feed the boys, then raced to the fairgrounds just in time for the parade. Then, some relative peace: Bethany bought the boys wristbands, so they happily spent about three hours going on ride after ride after ride until they were exhausted and I was feeling sick from a combination of too many people and lack of dinner. And that's when I realized the sweltering fair experience was only the eye of the storm.

By the time we got home, Liam and Henry were crashed out in their seats, but Max was still awake, and it had been almost five hours since the dog had last been out. So I took Max inside and told him to lay down on my bed while I took Charlie out (amazingly, he didn't have an accident while we were gone). I brought Charlie back in and gated him in the kitchen/dining room/living room area, then Max started yelling. "Mom, Charlie pooped on the bed!" Which would have been a neat trick, since Charlie was crated in the dining room while we were gone. But sure enough, I went in to find Max laying precariously about a foot away from a giant cat hairball/vomit that had soaked through all the bedding and into the memory foam mattress topper. Great.

Meanwhile, the big and little ones were still out in the running car in the garage. So I told Max to hang tight for a minute, then ran out and woke Liam up and told him to go lay down on the couch in my office. He ran inside while I got Henry. I managed to get Henry inside (past Liam, who was laying on the office couch) and in his crib without waking him up, only to turn around and find that Liam had gone straight to my bed and crawled through the cat mess to lay next to Max (and only then did he realize why I wanted him in the office, so he ran in there and laid down before I got inside with Henry!), so the stuff was spread not only all over the bed, but also all over Liam AND the office couch. Great.

At this point, I yelled at Liam for getting into the bed when I had told him not to, which woke up the baby, who immediately started screaming and wouldn't stop. So I stripped Liam and got him in the shower, frantically tore all the bedding off and shoved it in the washer, found the spare sheet and put it on, and tucked Max back in bed, all with Henry screaming bloody murder. Then I helped Liam get out of the shower, tossed some clean clothes at him, and went into the kitchen to get the baby a bottle--only to find Charlie with an open box of baking soda gripped tightly between his teeth, growling and shaking his head. He'd obviously been at it for some time, because the kitchen, living room, and dining room floors were all covered with the stuff.

Make the baby's bottle, get Liam settled in bed with Max, feed baby and rock him to sleep, head back out and clean up Charlie's baking soda mess, and finally--FINALLY--sat down and had my own dinner at 11:30 p.m.

And yesterday morning, I got up at 6:00 a.m. to do it all over again. And the "funny" part is that while this is more hectic than a normal night, it's actually not that much more hectic. Seriously, people, it's a wonder I have any hair left at all!

henry at 10 months

One morning, not too long ago, I woke up to hear this strange clacking noise. Clack clack clack clack! I fumbled to put on my glasses, and here's what I saw:



Uh-oh, time to lower the crib mattress! And he's not just pulling up to be on his knees: on his actual 10-month birthday, Henry pulled himself up to standing, holding on to one of his brother's small chairs. Then he stood there and screamed because he didn't know what to do next, while his brothers alternated between laughing hysterically at the baby and yelling for me to come and help.


Henry is really developing by leaps and bounds. His first tooth is in -- and sharp! He waves happily to everyone, and just this morning, he started saying "Hi" while waving -- his first official word. [Side note: I guess getting one of the three to say "mama" as the first word isn't terrible. Liam said "mama" first, while Max's first word continues to be his favorite: "no!"]

The separation anxiety hasn't eased much, and now he's doing the same thing with his teacher at daycare, who he is very attached to. It won't be long before she goes on maternity leave, so it'll be interesting to see how Henry reacts to school without her. On the other hand, he's getting much better at entertaining himself, motoring around the house, finding all sorts of trouble. We've cleared off the bottom shelves of the CD fixture, and I'm afraid it won't be long before we have to do the same with the big bookcases since I keep finding books scattered all over the floor. Then again, maybe it's just a very advanced peek at his future love of reading. Hey, a mom can dream, right?

anxiety and disorder

All week, Henry, my previously perfect little baby, has been letting loose with terrible bloodcurdling screams. For the first couple of days, it was mostly confined to bedtime. Whenever I lay him down, whether he's asleep or awake, his little eyes pop right open. He rolls his terrible eyes and roars his terrible roars, and nothing -- NOTHING -- will satisfy him until I stop what I'm doing and pick him up and hold him. And even then, the tears continue to roll down his face and his sobs gradually subside into sad little hiccups.

But now it's not just bedtime. It's all the time. When I set him on the floor to play, when I put him in his playpen to keep him safe while I let the dog out ... even when I pass him to Loni, who has been his steady companion his whole life. And tonight, driving to the restaurant for Liam's birthday, it hit me: He's got separation anxiety. And he's got it bad. Oh no.

So for the next few months, in addition to the normal routine of raising three very active boys and the not-so-run-of-the-mill experience of training a puppy, we'll have the added challenge of not ever being able to put Henry down to get anything else done. Wish us luck, because we're certainly going to need it.

I think I may have to end up getting some kind of baby backpack and start wearing him all the time so I can at least use my hands again. Suggestions and recommendations welcome.

liam at six

I'm not sure how we got here so quickly, but we're celebrating Liam's sixth birthday today. Because of Mike's work schedule, Liam got to have a cupcake (with candle, of course) first thing this morning. Then he opened presents and went to swimming lessons, and now he's at his summer program, where he'll take a field trip to the library and go to a flea market just for kids. All in all, a very exciting day.

Liam amazes us every day. He reads everything he can get his hands on, and has so many questions about every subject he encounters. He just soaks everything in, and he reasons through things and makes connections that I doubt I would have made at his age. He's changing so much, growing by leaps, and we're starting to catch glimpses of the preteen, teenager, man he will become.

In a lot of ways, he's a bundle of contradictions. He complains that he never gets enough sleep, but he's up at the crack of dawn every morning because he doesn't want to miss out on anything. He says he doesn't want to go to school, then comes home beaming and tells us how much fun he had and what he learned that day.

Our Liam is easily frustrated and prone to shouty outbursts, but for every one of those, there's a corresponding outburst of affection. Hugs, kisses, random declarations of love, and sometimes just pure sweetness. This morning, we went to the grocery store to order his birthday cake, just the two of us. Liam was talking with the baker and picking out his cake, and then he turned to me and said, "This is just wonderful, Mom!" and gave me a hug. And I shared a look with the baker that said, enjoy this now while it lasts. And I know it won't be long until he crosses over into mom-is-boring/embarrassing territory, so I do. I just wish that part could last!

when charlie met ollie

Oliver, the youngest of Bethany's Great Danes, is 4 months old here. Charlie is getting close to 2 months. Ollie was on his way home from the vet, so he stopped by to meet the new kid.

max will not be left out

This reminds me of a song the boys and I really like by They Might Be Giants (of course!) called "Climbing the Walls."

I was grinding my teeth, I was wasting my youth
And using up my teeth
Now I'm done chewing my nails
Hanging my head, chasing my tail
It got so bad I quit my job
Then I got a new job climbing the walls

fearful symmetry

I'm not usually one to get all literary with the references on the blog, but this phrase from William Blake seems just about right at the moment. But don't worry, I'm only speaking dentally. Saturday night, Liam lost his first tooth, and Sunday afternoon, my mom and Loni discovered that Henry's first tooth has broken through. So it's double the teething fun around here! Or, as my friend Natalie recently pointed out: It's the cirrrccclleeeee of liiiiiiiiiiife!

And now I will have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the week. Way to go, Natalie. And thanks a lot, Lion King.

henry at nine months

At Henry's checkup this month, Dr. B. kept remarking on how "full of personality" he is. And she's right. Instead of the normal "mama" and "dada" babbling most babies do, ours waits until we're talking to him, and then gives us his feelings on the matter: "blah, blah, blah." And unlike most babies his age, Henry doesn't sit up by himself. Not because he can't, but because he'd much rather be on the ground and on the move, getting into everything he can.

He continues to be the happiest baby of them all. He smiles and laughs easily, and even when he gets angry or demanding, he is easily pacified with a smile or laugh from one of us. He's partial to Liam in particular, and Liam is equally happy to sing and talk to Henry to keep him in good spirits.

Henry's growing right on schedule, as you can see. He's consistently followed the same growth curve every month, and this one was no exception. Here are his stats, and you can see a couple more pictures below.

28.75 inches
19.4 pounds

See also: one month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months, seven months, eight months.

charlie

Because we wanted to test the theory that you can never have too much cuteness in one house, we'd like to introduce Charlie, the newest resident of the Circus Forticus Menagerie. He's a chocolate lab, and officially he is Liam's birthday gift from Bethany and Joe, though of course, he's a gift to all of us. Boys and pup are (mostly) in a mutual admiration society, though Henry doesn't care for it so much when Charlie mistakes him for a fellow puppy and wants to romp. We only picked him (or he picked us!) yesterday, and it's already a great adventure, and we're sure the fun is only just beginning.

last day of school!

To celebrate, I made the boys a surprise dinner. Thankfully, Loni was able to help me with my plan, since it involved making pancakes from scratch (with buttermilk!) while simultaneously feeding the baby and keeping the big boys out of the kitchen and distracted until it was time to eat. And it turned out to be a big success! Once I had the first batch on the table, I led the boys (with hands over their eyes) to their chairs for the big unveiling:



And here's a close-up of the Yoda one:



P.S. In case you're wondering, we owe it all to Williams-Sonoma.

small blue planet

Upon arrival at my parents' house for an impromptu holiday weekend cookout, the boys discovered that Aunt Lon got them a surprise. Much excitement ensued.

happy memorial weekend!

The boys hope your holiday weekend is as fun as theirs has been so far.

They started out with a picnic feast out in the yard:





Then they moved on to the "bathing" portion of the evening:




And now they're doing some camping (indoors, but still very fun):

spring concert

Max and Henry had their spring concert this week, and Liam was very excited to finally get an audience member perspective on the proceedings instead of having to perform. He gave us his prediction for the show:



The program itself started with the younger kids group. Henry was probably the youngest one, and he didn't quite live up to Liam's expectations, but he was definitely in the spirit of things (you can hear him squealing in excitement):



It should be noted that X, the baby next to Henry, is at least six months older, but barely any taller. So even though Henry's kind of shripmy compared to where Liam and Max were at that age, he's still quite tall. Anyway, after the little kids joined their parents in the audience (or, in Henry's case, a parent, sibling, aunt, and Yami), the big kids took over. They did six or seven songs, and culminated in this impressive finale. Apologies if you wanted to see all the kids, but there's only one I really cared about so I focused on him.

sharp-dressed men