ba-FOG#1 - the website
I honestly don't understand the science of time and how it's possible for most of my days to seem longer than entirely possible, and still have the years fly by as fast as they do. Allistair is now 2. It doesn't feel like 2 years have blown by, and yet there's all that photographic evidence on my harddrive telling me that yes, it's been that long. hmmm.
Lots of things have happened since the last update. As I mentioned, Allistair turned 2. There was a party with family and a few close friends. Allistair played in the hot tub and the pool and was pretty happy all day long, especially when a certain Grammy chose to ignore the 'no presents' request (as did many people actually) and Allistair became the proud owner of a brand new, electric motor driven Indian motorcycle in British Racing Green. It should also be noted that Allistair's father is a sucker for his little guy, designing and having made a unique toy dubbed the "Allistairitron" just for Mr. Beebe. (More on that in Allistair's LiveJournal.)
Kurt and I both managed to attend the Death Guild Thunderdome fundraiser earlier this month. In general, I think we both had a pretty good time. It was good to be out and a part of our extended family again, especially for me, as it will probably be a few more years yet before I'm back on the Playa.
We are about completely and totally moved in to our new place now. Aside from the painful price and a couple of quirks, the place is perfect for us. Allistair is growing more and more accustomed to his room... though he still won't sleep in it all night long. Working from home doesn't feel like an exercise in adapting to claustrophobia any more (which I didn't realize until I was no longer in that situation). For a building that is generally shaded from the sun, it's remarkably bright. And sweet mother of science... we have a pantry! Anyone who doesn't have our new address and still wants it should let me know so I can update you.
I think that's about it for general updates. On to the growing Allistair update!
As I mentioned, he's all 2 and stuff. And he's pretty much able to wear most stuff in size 2T. Some is still too large or too long, and (as usual) some of it is actually too small (*cough*American Apparel*/cough*). We still have high hopes of potty training fun for the near future, so we're still favouring pull-up pants (vs. the button/zip variety). He's actually starting to speak in 3-word sentences now ("fishie eat bubbles"), though there's still much that only Kurt and I can understand ("no mo' Mama wo-wo!" = "no more Mama phone" = "No more playing with Mommy's cell phone", or "aka oowah-buck!" = "red fire-truck"). He definitely showing more independence and knowing what he wants - even in his book choices. If I pick the wrong book for bedtime, he'll let me know and go pick out one he likes better.
Current obsessions include, well, obsessing over things. He is, after all, in his Terrible Twos. He still loves things that go: Trains, trucks, bikes, airplanes... you name it. If it's red, it's even better. If it makes noise, that's cool too. Did I mention we live a block away from the local fire house? It's a current favourite hang-out. He also loves videos. He's really into Dumbo these days (ugh), and Wallace and Gromit (yay!), and the Cat in the Hat is still up there too, along with Max & Ruby. I'm about to start showing him some Oswald videos (and books), along with Beatrix Potter stuff (which I just discovered on video). Hopefully the variety will keep me from going bonkers at the repeat watchings. Among funniest and most promising interests lately are the alphabet and numbers. He points at letters a lot - often getting them confused, but not always. He really seems to enjoy practicing them, and counting to ten (which mostly consists of saying "8" and "10" over and over). He's getting there.
Because people periodically ask, the wishlists are still up. Here's one for Amazon, and another one for Target. We also *really* like the wide variety of black clothes available from Lucky L'il Devil, especially t-shirts (sized "toddler 2" or larger). I'm continuing to maintain Allistair's booklist of things we already have. And I don't care if we have room for them or not, AVOID STUFFED ANIMALS.
Allistair still has a LiveJournal account, which amuses me greatly. Also, there's a link to way more baby pictures than can possibly be healthy on his user profile page. Some Quicktime video bits are there too. Hopefully he'll update them again soon, because there are a TON to add.
Stuff still to do to this site (again, a list for myself, which I'm continually changing as I see the need):
-fix busted "back" link on "me" page, and update the whole page!
-add photos to kitty page
-thingie photos (return of)
-updated bio
-Thunderdome photos from 2004 and 2005 (and a DGTD index page that leads to each year)
-This page! (I know, huge shock.)
-I've updated Allistair's booklist, in case anyone wants to add to his library.
All photos on this site taken by me and copyright by me unless otherwise credited. Ditto on all the words unless they're in quotes, in which case they might be me, or they might not, and if I'm thinking, I might even attribute them properly; like this: * Quote taken from Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble". Blame FabLo and Danth.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I can be a nice person, but I'm still only human. If you want to contact me and say hello, please remember that. Be nice. Treat me with respect. Understand that I have a life AWAY from this interwebby thing and may not get back to you quickly (and in some cases, at all). Also, please be aware that I'm not anyone's secretary or agent. If you're contacting me, it's because you want to talk to *me*, not my husband, not my favourite author, not my cat, or the baby, but me. How would you like it if I wanted to ask your mom a favour and so I contacted you and just talked about how great she is the whole time? Yeah. It sucks. I don't like it, so don't do it. Everyone is free to look all over these pages all they want (otherwise, what would be the point of uploading them?), but if you can't behave or treat me like an individual, please avoid actually contacting me. Hope you like what you find here. Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle
MySpace <- warning, rarely looked at
Facebook <- ditto
Last update: 16 June, 2008
FOG: n., abbv.; Fan Of Neil Gaiman