3.5 Year Canundrum
Posted by helmut
I’m not sure if it’s the onset of 100 degree days, the obscene amount of caffeine I’ve had today or the fact that i haven’t seen my family in 6 months and have no plans to see them in the near future that have me desperately wanting to move back to Pennsylvania. Whichever it is i’m sure the urge will pass soon enough. Or maybe it won’t. Where the heck are we supposed to live?! Helmut and I have asked ourselves this question numerous times all of them ending with no answer. Should we live near my family and friends, or his family? Apparently we can’t decide so we landed in Austin, a sort of middle ground, far away from EVERYBODY, but at least there’s lots of work here. We’ve been here for 3.5 years now and are still feeling uprooted, like we can’t quite dig our feet in. I miss living around people that i’ve known since i was a kid and have known me. Making friends is tough, and keeping them is even tougher….and if i may say, starting from scratch in a place where everybody seems to have a core group of friends stinks.
Today Hayden called one of his little friend’s grandma’s “grandma.” I love that he did. I thought it was so sweet, but at the same time it got me to wondering, is this how it’s meant to be? Is he going to grow up steeling other kid’s grandparents because none of his own live anywhere near here? Food for thought. It takes a weird toll on the psyche not feeling like you belong.
Kids and Bugs
Posted by helmut
When Hayden was a baby i used to envision him as a child, the kind that you’ve heard described of as “unable to hurt a fly.” He was so easy going that i couldn’t imagine him ever being violent in any type of fashion. That vision got shot to heck a few months ago as we were lounging in the pool outside watching some bee’s walking on the grass. Hayden got himself a little play hammer and pounded one until it was dead (and in little pieces). I was deeply shocked thinking how could my son, my sweet innocent child commit such a crime against nature. I scolded him and gave him a 30 minute lecture on why God’s creatures, even the small ones are important and unique and we shouldn’t kill them blah blah blah. Since then he has “broken” several other bugs, each time followed up by a lecture by me on the importance of bugs in society.
That brings me to today. We were eating lunch in the kitchen. I had made a scrambled egg sandwich for myself and a PB&J for Hayden upon his request. Naturally as soon as he saw my sandwich he decided that he wanted some eggs too. I dutifully told him no, he must eat what he had asked for, and being 2 he dutifully climbed out of his chair and ran over to the stove to grab some eggs for himself (since i wasn’t going to give him any). I got up to follow (and scold) and as i was about to reach him i saw a HUGE spider on the floor directly in front of my bare feet. I’m no fraidy cat, but spiders scare the daylights out of me. So i screamed and jumped 5 feet backwards, tried to control my hyperventilating and grabbed a flip flop to kill it with….which i proceeded to do violently until it was ground to a pulp on the floor and i could breath again…..at which point i looked at Hayden figuring i owed him an explanation and said in my little-kid-voice “sowwy spider, you were just toooooo scary to live.”
Brussel Sprouts
Posted by helmut
I’ve been trying to get back to some kind of healthier eating patterns this week since my “never fail” diet has been failing me (gasp!), so when i saw a carton of brussel sprouts at the store i decided to buy them. How bad could they really be? I showed them to Hayden and he looked very optimistic so this afternoon i decided to cook them up for lunch. Hayden has pretty queer eating patterns for a kid and absolutely no pickiness. If it’s food, he’ll eat it…..maybe even if it’s cat food. He was practically quivering with anticipation at the new “vegetables”. So i gave him 2 to try, buttered and salted, and he actually gagged and spit them back out. So i gave them a try too, and while i didn’t spit mine out….and actually forced myself to eat several, i didn’t like them either. This got me to thinking, does anyone really like them?! If no one likes to eat them, why are we not shopping alternative uses of brussel sprouts? Why not use them to create an alternate bio friendly fuel? Why are we using corn, a food that i’m fairly certain most people enjoy. And while we’re at it, lets find a better use for grapefruit. Who are we kidding, that stuff tastes like a wrotten orange.