sweeps week part two

we co-sleep. we have a queen sized bed. sometimes akello sleeps in the middle and sometimes hes on theresas side. When we started co-sleeping I was fearful that i would swat the guy or rollover on him. Theresa allayed my fears saying, "that wont happen" to which i replied, "how do you know!" well,, it just doesnt happen. in some weird way, your body learns to stay still when its sleeping. i sleep on my stomach mostly and thrash about all night, but not since co-sleeping. so since your body and mind know that there is a baby in the bed, your subconcious is able to overide your reflexes. what what!!!

So im sleeping on my side the other morning and the sun is starting to peek through the blinds. i wake up to something on my body, like a moving rodent or something. now the old me at this point would be out of the bed and shaking out the sheets in about 2 seconds. but the co-sleeping me does the opposite. I am frozen. my eyes wide as can be. in nano seconds my brain has told me to be still for a moment and to let my brain figure this out. in about two more nano seconds its told me that a rodent is not the culprit, no. its akello's hands moving across my body. deep breath. I turn over to see the cutest baby in the world cruising across my body as he learns to walk.



i turn back on my side. he climbs back up and goes at it again. his hands move together, and apart, together and apart as He carefully makes his way from my shoulders to my legs and back again. what a way to start the day. it was like akello was the kracken and i was the rocky shore. you had to see AND remember the Clash of the titans to get that ref. but if you did and you do, then you know exactly how it felt to have akello walk up and down you.

so i wanted to talk a little bit about prince lionheart baby proofing. this is good stuff. i have been through a lot of different brands that all sucked! the stickum wasn't strong enough on those for a baby. (isint that funny) but lionheart is akello approved! tasty too!



we got it at babys r us







so the other day i decided to go to the guest room and take a nap, well out of akellos little hands grasp. im in the guest room from time to time to enjoy "the chair". but i really never get to admire the chair. its dark up there and i keep the shades drawn so as not to let the chair receive any direct sunlight so as to prevent sun damage. well. i went up there and opened the shades a little, and took a nap. when i woke up, it happened to be the magic hour. i looked over at the chair and was stunned!



it was gorgeously glowing in front of me. and i had never seen it from that angle as i have never taken a nap on that bed. i ran down to grab the camera, but the moment had passed. i still managed to take some acceptable pictures that are good enough to share that is a true representation of the rosewood finish.



Soooooo...............on with the continuation of sweeps week:

So one fine day two months ago, theresa says, "i want to run something by you, and tell me if im being crazy." I sit down.

"how would you feel about us cancelling mornings in the nest and moving to Dallas for June July and August so that I can attend montessori training from AMI, the harvard of montessori training schools?"

One of my eyebrow's is raised at this point. (harvard and montessori in the same sentence? expensive expensive.)

"i would be getting my certification in 0-3 assistants to infancy and be half certified by the end of the summer. we would have to do it again next summer. Its a rare opportunity for AMI to be in dallas doing this training. You can transfer to the dallas location temporarily and in the fall we can start MITN fast and furious with 8 kids and i can hire an assistant.

Both eyebrows are now raised. "sounds great to me!" i yell. I stand up and start pacing the room like an old movie or something. "we can live at one of my relatives house, theres an opening at the dallas store, so maybe they will let me work there and that will give them time to hire a new person to start after i leave and come back! a perfect plan!

and that brings us to today. we are about to load up the truck and move to beverly! dallas that is.

but it has not been that simple. We realized that i didn't want to work while in dallas, i just wanted to stay with the little one while mommy went to school. and then i could work nights waiting tables or something. so i changed my request to work in dallas to simply take a 2 month leave of absence. My company didnt like that. My company is not very family oriented to begin with but i was still kinda shocked that my request got turned down. "well drats" i said! what am i going to do! im not about to have all of our hard work bringing up akello in the montessori style go to waste by putting him into daycare. (no montessori schools available in dallas for his age group) Gee willikers.

Now i got to say i was planning on a career move once akello started weekend activities like, soccer or something, but lately i have really been missing out on a lot of weekened activities with family and freinds. I have also realized that retail is not for me. too much about sales goals and excel spreadsheets and not enough about cool furniture and decorating. So i saw this as a great opportunity to start new, right now! so just like two years ago, theresa asks me again what i want to be if i could be anything. Well there are only 2 things left at this point having realized that i dont want to be a decorator. Have my own business, or be a screenwriter.

well, i cant just start making money screenwriting, and i dont even have a business plan, so what now? well what would be best for my family? a job where i spent more time at home, had weekends off, made descent money, and had spring break, christmas break, and summers off so that i could start my business or write my movie! yes, i would be a teacher! i could start in the fall and get some kind of alternative certification! that way theresa and i would have the same schedule too! sure its less money, and i cant curse anymore, but it will be soooooo worth it.

But what am i going to teach? not math, not science. maybe history. maybe ill just coach soccer! can i do that? can i just walk off the street and coach soccer? i could wear a tracksuit all day. how pimp would that be!

well i quickly realize that to get a gig doing this i have to teach math or science. those are the jobs that are in demand. i suck suck suck at math. i have a mental block against math b/c my dad is a math teacher and i went to the same school that he taught at. i have always wanted to be an art teacher. ever since the day in second grade when Mrs. Short, THAT RIGHT IM CALLING YOU OUT! when mrs. short threw away my painting, calling it and im using extreme air quotes right now..."CRAP". EVER since then i have wanted to teach art. even as a second grader i knew that you couldnt teach art, only methodoldy, history, tecnique. and i wanted to be that person. but when i pursued being an artist i quickly realized you didnt make any money. drats! so thats why i picked radio tv film as a major in college. i could be a rich hollywood director, and you dont have to know math to make movies right! hahaha, oh if i only knew. i think i learned what drop frame timecode was on the first day of class and quickly sulked in my chair.

"too bad i cant be like my friend and teach Film Production classes to high schoolers" i mumbled.

"why not" theresa asks.

um, i dont know. so i call my friend. and he says, "all you need is 5 years expireance and a degree in the field."
and im all, "not a problem" and he's all, "are you serious about this? i thought you were going to be an interior designer?" "no, i just like furniture and picking out paint colors" "ok then i'm going to tell them to fire the guy working with me who doesnt even know how to turn the camera on and tell them to hire you to replace him. talk to ya later.

then we find out that akellos godmother, Tia Anita has come to the rescue with a rental property that she owns that has come available. i get this phone call,

anita "are you at a computer?
gil " yes"
anita "google this adress."
gil "ok"
anita "how far away is this from the school that theresa has to go to"
gil "10 miles"

anita "well, if you want, you can stay at our rental property this summer. everything is on and working, but you got to bring a refrigerator of some sort and its all hardwood flooring so you might want to bring a rug. no furniture though!

and im all "you had me at you can stay" but seriously, what a blessing this way we didnt have to baby proof my uncles house. that would have been worth filming.
and now. the less furniture the better, so we just got to take a dorm fridge and a few things like a mattress and stuff.

whoohoo! things are looking promising right? but then here comes the monkey wrench....

my manager calls me to tell me that she is quitting! and that she wants to promote me to her position! whoa!
awesome! if you would have told me this........... a year ago! i think about it but really
my mind doesnt even blink. No thanks. i would rather be a teacher! low pay and all! even though my wifes a teacher and both my parents are teachers and all my freinds are teachers and im going to have to hear loads and loads of unsolicited advice, (prolly more than baby advice) i still want it. i can't stand the sales pressure as it is! i'd hate to be the one giving it! so not worth the money! Like if i really wanted a career in sales, id be selling homes ya know? id have one of those ads in TRIBEZA, yeah you know that type. all airbrushed and everything.

Well my friend made some calls and i interviewed and was offered the job. So i will be teaching filmaking this fall! and might even be an assistant soccer coach! best part is... i dont start till after we get back from dallas in august. Im sooooooo glad my company didnt grant my leave. it was really god saying....."it is time you wore a tracksuit to work. t-shirts and flipflops are too dressed up for you."

We are truly blessed.

pics and video

its 12:04am. tonight i was tired and decided to go to bed at 10 to much shock of theresa. well i laid down and akello decided it was time to play. we have been tiredly watching him get it out of his system for two hours in the living room. it sounds like he is finally going to sleep in there. i took a minute to post a few things. no energy to write really.

part one

Ohhhkayy!

Here we go people. Better go to the restroom, grab yourself a beveridge and come on back.

It’s been a long time, and for good reason, things have been super busy on our front. That and I have recently developed cubital tunnel syndrome and it’s painful to type on some nights when I do feel like blogging.

I have been pretty limited with my left arm since I did all of that landscaping and such. Speaking of landscaping the transplants on the side fence are starting to come up and they look great!





We have also started the backyard garden.


it could use some weeding out though

Some herbs are planted and things are looking good. we have left space available for students to plant some things come the fall.

The gravel pit is good to go and the only thing that’s left is the side yard that needs to clean up a little, well, a lot. We eventually want to move our storage shed over there. So, getting back to a few things that I had said I would follow up on that I wrote about, oh, 4 months ago. # 1 is Don’t go to home depot in the middle of the day on a weekday. It sucks. Nobody is there to help you. And they take this time to block off aisles and restock lumber. I was over there getting lumber for the gravel pit and had to wait forever! Best time to go is at night or in the morning.

Speaking of gravel pit. That brings us to #2. Let’s talk about cheap black plastic edging. You see this stuff all over. Most of the time it is horribly installed. That’s because it takes a lot of work to install it right. Nobody has the patience to do it right so you see a lot bad uses!

I can’t stand the stuff. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just that I can’t stand it. My father in law suggested I use it for the gravel pit, and I’m like, NO WAY! I have my code of aesthetics. So I started really thinking about how I was going to border it off. It’s a tough one. On the one hand it has to do the job of keeping the gravel out of the yard but on the other, it has to be safe for kids, and on the other hand, it has to look good. What’s that old saying??? Cost, time, quality. Pick two. Yes they had that on a sign somewhere where I used to work.

Speaking of work, I quit my job this week, but where was I? oh yes, gravel pit edging. So I wanted to use wood for the gravel edging but wood on the ground would attract termites, and treated wood puts off chemicals that are bad for kids. So then I thought copper metal, all big red sun style. Hello! That’s gonna hurt, and its expensive. Ok what about PVC! Round and safe, and ….ugly! I was running out of time, and I went to the depot to look at my options. Well, I see this “industrial strength” plastic edging for 20 bucks. 20 bucks is all it’s going to cost me to do the project. I finally succumbed. Just like I succumbed to screwing corner gaurds into my 900 dollar coffee table. remember that whole bit! Anyway It was just the best option. It’s safe for the kids, the house, and the pocketbook. But it was not easy to install. Me and my dad had a time of it.



Eventually I ripped two of the sections out. They just didn’t look good and I didn’t need them really. So in the pit, two sides are blocked with the edging, one side is the concrete patio, and then I went and bought some cedar to screw into the bottom of the fence on the side opposite the patio. Not bad. I’m happy with it. Anybody want 10 bucks worth of edging? Ok, so anyway, getting back to the yard.





We have a new “used” swing set in the back and will be selling our turtle sandbox. It’s not Montessori. Too cutesy.
Theresa has this grand idea for a sand and water table made out of PVC pipe. We’ll see. you see that ugly green box in the photo of the turtle sandbox? thats for the cable tv people. why they pick that color green? i have no idea, cuss it doesnt match grass or anything. i wanted to stain it the same color as the fence, but it wouldnt take the stain. so im going to buy a pho-rock! thats right. a fake rock to go over it. that will be later. maybe for christmas.



Oh yeah, my arm.
I’m supposed to not do anything with it, but it’s like, “hello! I have a baby!” I try to use my right arm only but life gets in the way. Enough about me, lets get to akello, oh wait, my job, ummm that can wait actually.

Akello was sick a while back with a Urinary tract infection. UTI for those in the biz. Very rare. It was nice to know that there was nothing that we could have done about it. He turned around once he got put on the anti-biotics. It was tough to give him his medicine though. For one, he is very good at spitting stuff out of his mouth, on top of that, he’s a determined little fella, and it’s hard to stick a syringe down his mouth twice a day for a week or so. He still needs to undergo a test or eight to see if he’s clear to suit up.

He is crawling, standing up, and eating table food. He is so over baby food. We try to feed him some and he just looks at us, and then at our plates. So then we put some baby food on our plates the next day. Nope, there’s no tricking him. He loves chicken and pasta so far. Babies are great. they know what they like, and what they don’t like. Its easier figuring out what to do with akello than it is with some of my friends. “I dunno, what do you want to do?”

He just loves to move, loves to stand, but sometimes freaks out cuss he doesn’t know how to sit back down. He has gotten to the point of crawling to different rooms in the house. His favorite spot in the whole house is the stereo shelf in our bedroom. The shelf is low enough for him to pull himself up on, and he just loves to turn the stereo on and press the buttons. Then he just pulls all the cd’s off the shelf one by one as if to say, “Crap, crap, crap, crap disguised as something good, crap,” he loves the stereo b/c he can easily and randomly push buttons and something always happens. He will turn on the radio, then switch to tape, then turn on the cd. Back and forth for minutes on end. Then he will open the CD door and start spinning the cd back and forth like a little DJ scratching a record.

It was mother’s day and he was at his usual spot playing with the stereo, but hadn’t turned it on yet. I had given Theresa her mother’s day card and she was reading it and afterwards I said, “But that’s not all!” and proceeded to pull her gift out from under my pillow. At the same time, music started to play. Akello had turned on the CD player and grinned! It was hilarious! Our little DJ was right on que!

We have baby proofed the bedroom now. It was on the backburner since he wasn’t moving around, but now its like watch out! We picked up this adhesive backed soft molding at babys r us. Its awesome. It has a super strong grip. It has performed very well as compared to others that I have tried out. 5 stars! We applied it to the stereo shelf and the footboard of the bed.

Mothers day was great, even though I had to work. We started the day with a card that I made theresa that had a picture of akello and mama on day one, akello que'd the music and I gave her a gift, Angelique Kidjo’s latest CD. Then we went to have breakfast at Curras, one of our favorite Sunday hang outs back when we were dating and I lived in the 04. This was the first time that I had been to a restaurant with akello. I was a little nervous. Thinking that we would need a lot of table space to keep things out of akellos reach.







We had a great time . we hadn’t been in so long that we forgot how things tasted. So it was a nice refresher. Akello ate some black beans off my plate. He was so funny eating them up. He’s funny in general. So there was a table in our vicinity that had a mom, two sisters, and a baby. The baby was making eyes at akello and we were smiling at the table and admiring their baby. After they had eaten and were getting up to leave they came over to say hi and ask the usual baby icebreaker questions. How old is your baby? I started thinking about how Theresa had said that people where all of the sudden a lot nicer to her once she was showing her pregnancy and how that’s still the case when she carries akello around. And here we were. All strangers saying hi, brought together in the middle of a resturaunt by a couple of babies. I swear, if everyone had a 8 month old at home, there would be no war.

We then met up with The Romeros at Ruta Maya for Joe Mcdermonts CD Release party. Hes a childrens music artist, so there are all these kids grooving to some quirky silly guy on stage.






It was a fun time, I scooted off to work from there. Then after work we went to town lake for a walk. We walked for a good while.






Akello digs the walks. And then we had take out from Whataburger for dinner. What a treat! A great first mothers day.

well, i thought i could tackle it all, but it looks like part two will have to wait till tommorow. wait till you hear about my job drama!!

tommorrow

akello loves pomegranite juice!

monday i will update the blog. i promise!

its coming

the update is coming. its gonna be a good one too! im talkin sweeps week style!

baton down the hatches...akello is on the move!

THE MONSTER OF ALL MONSTER UPDATES!

the monster update will be soon. i promise. a lot to share. but for now. a pick of the little one.

feelin better

thanks for all your concern. akello is feeling better these days. he has kicked his fever and is on antibiotic for another 5 days. we couldnt be happier to see him back to his old self again. playing bongos, showing his teeth, and pulling up on stuff.

poor akello

akello is sick!



poor little guy. nothings worse than when your baby is sick. You feel so helpless as a parent. You dont know what hes thinking, or feeling but you know he doesnt like it.
Akello has been put through the ringer these past few days with doctors and x-rays and shots and restraints! theresa says that the restraints were the worst.

He has had a fever for the past couple of days. they have ruled out the flu, but we are awaiting x-ray results and urine tests on this friday morning to find out more.

he is so congested too. so much mucus in that little body of his. so much sadness over here right now.

starting to pulll himself up

howdy folks.

my its been a while. There is something in the air. My minds capacity for sitting down for any length of time (especially to write) has been taken over by anticipation. by restlessness. There is soooooo much change afoot with our family. Id like to tell you more but now is not the time. SOON though...very soon. the school is doing great. and we are in the middle of our spring semester. we have learned a lot and are making some new and improved changes/ and or upgrades. like the garden! it is complete! i will take pics tommorrow. i brought down a bunch of teaching materials that theresa had stored in boxes in the attic and we consequentially re-arranged the garage! its so much better. i dont think anyone would notice but us. but we love it.

Akello is progressing! his top teeth are coming in fast! i think he has 4 or 6 that have come into the picture. Theresa is keeping a watchful eye for tooth decay. Shes heard some horror stories and has been researching it alot. Get this, apparantly there is an acid in our saliva that can hurt babies teeth. So i no longer model how to eat by eating his baby food and then give a spoonful of sweet potatos to him. No longer do we let him kiss us on the mouth either. he loves to attack us with those chompers! we keep our lips closed tight!

We have introduced brushing as part of his morning and night time routine. he like it.

Theresa and i just watched this awesome video on montessori kids in japan. it was on VHS! I had almost forgotten which buttons on the remote to pick in order for it to come on its been so long. then i realized it was the cable people. they messed it up when they were installing our 4 dollar cable upgrade the other day.

we have basic cable for the signal. and roadrunner high speed internet too. then we get this call that they want to give us digital cable for 4 bucks more. whatever! scammers! i ignored em forever, until they actually came beating down my door.

cable guy - "sir, we have been trying to get a hold of you. im glad i finally caught you. todays the last day that you are eligible for the upgrade. why havent you called us"

gil - "cuss its a scam"

cable guy - "no scam sir, youve been such a good customer that we are offering this to you, no strings"

gil- "my name isnt even on the bill"

cable guy -

gil -

cable guy -

gil - listen. ill sign up for 4 dollar cable but you got to tell me whats up, thats all, so spill it or im walking back into the house.

cable guy - well sir, we are targeting all the hispanics in the area that already have a cable hookup in order to get cable boxs into their homes so that they can have the opportunity to order the paperview fight between oscar de la hoya and maryweather this saturday. our profit margins on payperview dwarf those of digital cable, so its worth it to us.

Gil - oh. well thats all you had to say. but how come you didnt target my wife, whose name is on the bill? she's black, maryweather is black.

gil and cable guy together - cuss shes a womaaaaaannnnnn......ohhhhh..

so cable has almost sucked me in. after a day or two of exploring i put down the remote and have gone back to my eames lounge chair for reading and thinking.
its nice to know that its there if we want it though. last night i got sucked into flipping between sopranos, family guy, and some generic design show on tlc. i found myself in that endless search for something else to watch with a remote that was wayyyy to slow. but im back now.

i just tried to watch The Last Dragon. that motown production from the 80's. after 10 minutes i had to turn it off. i borrowed the dvd from a friend thinking it would be great to see it again. it was so bad. but worth the first 10 minutes to see greg kineer in some side role.



kello with grandpa ted.

anyway,
akello is startting to pull himself up to stand. thats all he wants to do. i think he is going to skip crawling. not that that is a good or bad thing. some babies just do it. you cant even put him on the ground anymore to sit because he wont bend his legs, so you have to lay him down and then sit him up. then he just leans forward onto his hands and puts his legs underneath him and slowy starts coming off the knees. he looks like he's doing little yoga poses b/c he doesnt move very fast. he is concentrating so hard. he just kind of wobbles. keeping his ever wobbly little body in balance.

heres some video of him at marisols birthday party! he loves them scarves!