Now We Know Why Americans Are Linguistically Challenged

I've been working on Italian for the past few years, off and on. Although my best (and only marginally useful) sentence is "Dov'e il ufficio postale?" (Where is the post office?), I'm currently in "on" mode due to the BBC's Italian Steps page. The BBC also has French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Portugese and Greek. If only PBS had the same sort of thing. No wonder so few Amerians are multi-lingual.

What to Buy

I'm sure there's a job out there somewhere... I'm sure someone has to do it. I'd love to be one of those people who tries out new baby products and gives feedback. I know people do it. I mean, a lot of people do that, but there must be people who do it for money. As an example of our certain expertise in this area, in our short life with Ethan, we have purchased three strollers. Overkill, I know, and it makes me feel guiltily like a greedy consumerist pig, but for three different purposes. We have the jogging stroller for walks at home, and to the park, and for off-roading. It also works well for jogging, I understand. The jogging stroller doesn't maneuver well, however, so we have the stroller that the baby carrier/car seat snaps into. This one folds up into the back of Matt's car, and we use it for our infrequent trips to the mall, and our frequent trips to Wal-Mart. Finally, we have the umbrella stroller. It must be the tiniest and cheapest stroller currently on the market, and positively the only one that will fit in my car. It's great for when we can't fit the other strollers in. Ethan's still a little small for this one, but it can be used by tipping it back on the hind wheels so he doesn't fall out.

Would it be too much to say that we also have cushy head/body supports for these strollers? Now I really do feel like a pig. Maybe I secretly hope there's such a job to justify such extravagance. Don't get me started about toys, clothes, blankets and other baby gadgets. It's not that babies need these things. They attract them with a magnetic pull stronger than the force of gravity. Diapers. We actually have well-reasoned preferences for certain brands of disposable diapers, formulas, bottles, nipples, and scents of baby lotion. You were unaware baby lotion comes in scents? We like the lavendar. Maybe instead of the job, I could get some sort of corporate sponsorship.

He Swims

Ethan Swims

He Sleeps

Ethan Sleeps

The Dollar Store Phenomenon

After the last rather depressing post, I feel I should write about something a little more uplifting (perhaps a post containing fewer run-on sentences and more subjects). Have you ever noticed how when you go in to a dollar store to buy two things, you end up spending at least $10. No? I do. I have friends who like hardware stores, and friends who like drug stores... I like dollar stores. If they were bigger, I could spend hours browsing. As it is, I can sweep through, pick up the bargains and leave happy: one bag of yogurt covered pretzels, one bag of cacahuates con chile, one package of tissue paper, one gift bag, three cards. Total: under $6.75. The Dollar Store. For everything else, there's Mastercard.

Coming soon... pics of Ethan swimming.

How We Spend Our Weekends

Here's why we're tired and haven't blogged any the past week, and it has nothing to do with having a four-month old:

Last Friday while packing to go to drill, we couldn't find Matt's insurance card for the car, so we looked through files and found a copy of the policy; that took about an hour, but it was a minor setback. We packed up the car and Ethan, discovered it wouldn't start, jumped it, went to get gas, it died again, jumped it again, drove home, unpacked all the stuff, put it in my car, and headed to Ft. Worth. On the way, our brakes went out on I-20 south of Dallas as people were slowing down/stopping to see an accident (WHY do people DO that!!??). We swerved in and out of slowing/stopping cars (fortunately Matt was driving), made it to the shoulder and stopped with the emergency brake just behind the police officer who was at the accident. I thought we were going to hit him. Actually, I thought we were going to hit a lot of people. At one point, I yelled, "Should I call 911?", but realized that I wouldn't know what to say: "911. What is your emergency?" "We haven't had one yet, but we're about to crash!!" Matt found this to be the biggest comic relief of the weekend. Call 911. What would they do??

We towed the car to Arlington to a VW place where they said they would try to work it in tomorrow and rented a car; continued trip to Fort Worth. The dealership people looked at the car, said it was fine, and gave it back the next day. Conclusion: we must have had an air bubble in the brake lines. Drove to Dallas to meet friends that night, got back late. Got lost in north Fort Worth the next day with another officer on the way to a YMCA... it was a few miles from base, but we drove over 80 mi. During this time, my phone was stolen (I accidentally left it at a gas station while asking for directions); Dad said, "How do you know someone stole it?" Easy. I called my number, and talked to the guy, who wouldn't give me any contact information and claimed he didn't have a phone number. Right. That's why he took my phone. He said he'd take it back to the gas station. Um hum. Promptly cut off the phone. Uneventful trip back home, but somehow we managed to crush Matt's phone under the seat on the way. It still works. Good thing, because we discovered how expensive cell phones are if you buy one without a plan. While I was at work, Matt called the phone insurance place, I filed a police report, they sent me a new phone, and Matt got my phone service up and running. We decided it was the WORST WEEKEND EVER. We're glad we're both patient and still love each other. Ethan just went along for the ride.

Ethan Meets His Second and Third Cousins

Moore Family Reunion and Visit to Grandma and Poppa's

We've got pics of both sides of the family here, my extended family and Matt's grandparents. Ethan charmed them all.