Halloween.

Nate had to work on Halloween, so the kids and I went out to my parent's house for chili and cornbread (tradition!) (which was super good!) and some trick-or-treating. Sonnet liked passing out the candy more than she liked traipsing around to get it (since she hardly eats it anyway). Stetson had his first lollipop and he looooooved it. I ate all the kit kats and butterfingers I could find. The end.

Trunk or Treat!

We went to a "trunk or treat" at our church tonight. Sonnet loves any excuse to wear her costume! :) She decided to dress up as princess Jasmine (from Aladdin) this year. She loves her costume and she had fun walking around getting candy in her basket (that she will never eat, but hey, I will)! We dressed Stetson up as a monkey (complete with a banana, his favorite!) because, well, he IS a little monkey. He loved looking at all the kids and let's be honest, he loved the little nip of chocolate I shared with him. Happy (almost) Halloween! :)

 

Date Night.

My man took me to the PBR World Finals tonight! I wore my favorite boots, my Stetson (my hat, not my baby), ate greasy concession stand food, cried during the national anthem (gets me everytime), saw some awesome rides, and listened to the glorious sound of that 8-second buzzer. THAT is my kind of date! :)

 

Pucker Up!

I know it looks like I'm making out with my kid, but Stetson started giving kisses today and it is THE CUTEST THING EVER! I might die. I had to document it. He doesn't actually 'pucker up", but he sticks his slimy, open mouth right on yours and then he laughs. It's so darn cute! And he knows he's come across something good... I was trying to put him down for his afternoon nap today, but he started touching my face and kissing me over and over... it was so cute I just couldn't resist a few more minutes with him. He totally played me. And I liked it. :)

 

2 Babies in a Tub.

Stetson thinks bath time is the greatest thing ever. I like it because he is CONTAINED. :) Throw in a Sissy and it gets super crazy fun. I know, nakey baby pictures are embarrassing, but they are just so cute, I couldn't resist. :)

 

You can kinda see his little tooth, bottom left.

Pumpkins.

We went to the pumpkin patch this week. We didn't actually buy any pumpkins (waaaay cheaper at Walmart), but Sonnet rode all the rides and jumped in all the bounce houses and slid down all the slides... she had LOTS of fun. It was a nice evening and it was fun to do something autumn-ish and be with my family. :)

Pretty sure they're related.

 

 

Spaghetti Monster!

This little guy will eat anything. It's kind of fun (especially since Sonnet never would/still won't eat anything). He tried spaghetti yesterday and he LOVED it. It was ALL OVER the place, but he had tons of fun trying to pick up the noodles and stick them in his mouth. I especially love when he sticks the end in and slurps the rest like a snake. So cute. :)

 

Laugh.

Nate and I have a saying: “Someday we’ll look back and laugh.”

When we’re so broke we have to count quarters to put gas in the cars, or when the baby just won’t go to bed, or when we haven’t seen each other for 72 hours because Nate had to work a long shift, or when Sonnet wants more attention than we have energy, or when I drop a full half gallon of chocolate milk all over my freshly mopped floor… we look at each other and say, “Someday we’ll look back and laugh.” It always lightens the mood. Things are never as bad as they seem and there are so many good things about this time in our lives that we try to have an optimistic attitude.

Lately, I’ve been feeling kind of junky. Nate has been super busy with work, the engineer’s academy, school classes, and a new church calling. He’s a big help to me when he is home, but when he can’t be home, well, I start to get whiney. Yesterday, I thought: “If only I could sleep past 7am just once, or read more than a paragraph in my book without falling asleep, or do some yoga or tai chi without being interrupted… heck, I’d even settle for 5 minutes alone in the bathroom to take a dump…"

And then I reminded myself that someday I’ll look back at all of this and laugh. Then it dawned on me, maybe I should just laugh now. I mean, honestly, it is kind of funny when you take a Ziploc bag full of change to the cashier and tell them you need $9.53 on pump 6, and Nate is pretty funny when he’s delusional from not getting enough sleep, and heck, it’s just chocolate milk. Blaze was perfectly happy to lick it up anyway.

So today, I really tried to laugh. When Stetson pulled a brand new bag of chips out of the pantry and proceeded to step on it until every chip was completely crushed, I laughed. When he woke up 45 minutes earlier than normal (and I already think his normal wake up time is too early), I snuggled him and laughed. When Sonnet insisted on doing the dishes and ended up dumping a mixing bowl full of dirty water all over the floor, I thanked her for being willing to help and laughed. When I sat down to go the bathroom and my cell phone immediately rang, someone knocked on the door, Stetson started crying, and Sonnet spent three minutes knocking on the bathroom door, I laughed. Cause really, that’s just funny. And laughing is better than the alternative.

And I believe, someday I will miss this.

Political Issues.

Some thoughts on a couple political issues...

I don’t believe in abortion. I absolutely cannot stand the phrase “a woman’s right to choose.” Women have the right to choose. They have the right to not have sexual intercourse or to use protection to avoid pregnancy if they are not ready to be a mother. Once you make the choice not to do those things, I believe you should be responsible for the consequences.

How about the rights of the baby? They can't protect themselves. You conceived them. Don’t they have a RIGHT TO LIVE? In matters of rape or incest, or when pregnancy poses a lethal threat to the mother, there may be other factors to consider, but I would support delivery and adoption over abortion any day.

(I have a friend who got pregnant when she was very young. She didn't plan the pregnancy and she was in no position to take care of the baby. But she chose to deliver the baby and allow him to be adopted by a loving family. She still receives pictures and updates about the boy several years later. His family adores him and while I'm sure it was and is hard for her, she made one of the most selfless, noble decisions a woman can make. THAT is a right to choose that I support.)

It is fact that in the United States, 1.47 million abortions are performed each year. That number should make you sick. And you should be aware that only 1% of those abortions are performed to victims of rape or incest. ONE PERCENT! 6% are done for health reasons. 93% are performed for “reasons of convenience.” Which means that NINETY THREE PERCENT of women seeking abortions just don’t want to be bothered with a baby for one reason or another. No one should support that and the government sure as heck shouldn’t protect or finance it.

I am so sick of people attacking conservative politicians for "telling a woman what she can and can't do with her body." If women weren’t careless and selfish, the government wouldn’t have to get involved. It is about protecting LIFE. A baby is a baby is a baby is a baby. No matter how you package it, it should not be morally, ethically, or politically acceptable to end an innocent life.


And another thing:

I am sick of all the attacks on the wealthy.

Am I wealthy? No. Most months, I can barely pay all my bills. But my husband works hard and with sacrifice, we meet all of our financial obligations, on time, every month, and manage to clothe, feed, and house our family without welfare from the government or assistance from the community or our church. For me, that kind of self-reliance is a source of pride.

Would I like to be rich? Sure. We’d all like to have more money. But just because we envy the rich does not give the government the right to take their wealth and redistribute it to those who haven’t earned it. I am absolutely against “redistribution.” Poor people seem to think the rich owe them something… like it’s not fair that someone else has money when they don’t. That way of thinking is ignorant and destructive. And I resent the mentality that all rich people are greedy and selfish.

Making everyone equal and bringing everyone into the middle class sounds great, but really, it’s socialism, which DOES NOT WORK. Look at Russia. Read Atlas Shrugged. Try and do a group project at school and you will see that true equality when it comes to goods, work, and money is just not possible with imperfect human beings. The government cannot force us to be altruistic. The lazy get lazier and the hard-working producers eventually stop producing. Last week I heard someone say, “Socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money.” Amen.

Back to the wealthy…

Quite honestly, I think it is ridiculous that federal taxes are based on a sliding scale. There is no reason a rich man should pay more in proportion to a poor man. I don’t know much about economics, but logic and fairness tell me that we should adopt a fixed percentage rate across the board. Call it 25%. If you make a million dollars a year, you pay 25% of a million dollars. If you make ten grand, you pay 25% of ten grand. It’s proportionate. It’s equal. As it stands now, the fact that the government takes more from those who earn more actually dampens the motivation to earn more. See the problem there? It’s wrong and counter to the true American ideal.

I know it’s not a perfect world, but that doesn’t change the way I think.

Everyone complains about the capital gains tax. But from what I understand, I don’t agree with capital gains taxes at all. I think they doubly tax savings and investments, they don't actually make much money comparatively, and they penalize entrepreneurship and innovation. Capital income is already taxed at the level of the corporation, the investing of capital is beneficial to us all, the deadweight cost of capital taxation is higher than that of consumption, property or income taxes, and nearly all of capital taxation is in fact the taxation of inflation of asset values, not actual income.

As far as the complaint that it allows rich people to pay less in taxes than middle-class types, we already have a tax provision to prevent this called the Alternative Minimum Tax. There’s a limit to the number and amount of deductions you can take as a high income earner making sure that their average tax rate does not fall below what is stated to be an acceptable minimum.

On a simpler level, my problem is that at some point, the “rich” person made their money through “traditional” means and it was taxed as income tax. I see no reason that the government should then take a cut of their gains when they invested their OWN money or sold their OWN property. If they were lucky or smart enough to make money on their OWN money than it should remain their OWN money. Basically, I’m just against taxes in general. I just believe in small government and I think they should keep their hands out of our pockets.

But while I’m on the subject, I support tax breaks for expensive items. If a millionaire wants to buy himself a private jet, give him a little break on it. Think of all the people who worked to build that jet, who will have jobs maintaining it and staffing it for years to come. That millionaire just stimulated the economy in a way the rest of us can’t afford to do. Good for him.

I am not rich, but I know several “rich” people. And for the most part, they are wealthier than the rest of us because they are smarter or more creative, because they saw opportunities that the rest of us didn’t see and took risks that the rest of us weren’t willing to take. Being rich does not mean you are dishonest or a bully or a crook. Generally, rich people have earned their wealth and I believe they deserve it. Sure, some inherit their money. But you know what? At some point, somewhere, someone earned that money through their own ingenuity, business-sense, hard work, talent, and investment. It is wrong to believe that the rest of us have any claim on that.

(I am not saying that those of us who don't make millions of dollars a year are lazy or dumb... there are gobs of low/middle-class people who are honest, dilligent, creative people who provide for their families and do the best they can, but probably won't become Bill Gates. I just don't think those who do "make it" should be punished.)

No one should get something for nothing. I hate that I take responsibility for my family and my livelihood, while those around me use the system to get free food, free housing, and free healthcare AND see no problem with inviting the government to take even more control over our lives. There are times when everyone needs a little extra help, but to take and take and take with no consequences is just plain wrong. No one owes you anything. The “entitlement mentality” is killing America. Independent, self-sustaining, personal success should be the goal of every American. And we sure as heck should not punish those who have achieved it or reward those who don’t even see the value of it.

 Hmmm… it’s kind of fun to stir the pot. Maybe I should share my thoughts on gun control next… J

8 Months.

My little boy is 8 months old today!

He weighs just under 20 pounds and he’s 29 inches long.
 

He is finally cutting his first tooth, bottom left. J

Over the last month he finally started sleeping through the night. He goes down about 9pm and gets up by 7am. Sometimes he wakes up around 4 or 5 am to eat, but then he goes back to sleep. It took some work to get to this point but he’s doing really well.  We’ve kind of got a schedule down: He goes down for his morning nap around 9:30 and [usually] sleeps two hours (heaven!). We haven’t quite got the afternoon nap figured out yet. He gets tired right about the time I have to pick up Sonnet from school, so he just takes a little cat nap in the car and then he takes another cat nap around 5 and then goes back to bed at 9 for the night.

He pretty much eats anything you give him. He especially likes bananas and anything with apples in it. And I may or may not have given him a piece of chocolate a few days ago. He loves me now! J My friend made me some pumpkin bread and I cut a big slice and put it on a plate. I went to help Sonnet with something and when I came back, I saw that The Little Monkey had pulled the plate off the table and had a huge chunk of bread in each fist and was shoving it in his mouth as fast as he could. When he saw me, he just got a huge grin on his face and went back to eating.

He’s been crawling for about two months now. It took him about two seconds to go from crawling to pulling up on things. In the last couple weeks he’s started “cruising” on and between the furniture. He doesn’t really have great balance though so I think it’ll be a while before he walks. No hurry, Little Man!

He’s brave. One day, he was playing on the rug in the front room and I started vacuuming in the kitchen. As the vacuum got closer and closer to him, I could see a look of panic come across his face. He made a face like he was going to cry and I was about to turn the thing off, but then he got on all fours, crawled over to the vacuum, sat right in front of it, and just watched it for a minute. Then he reached out and touched it a few times, looked at me, and crawled back to his toys. It was such a funny thing… like he chose to face his fear and realized that the big loud thing wasn’t all that scary after all so he just went on with his life.

He has tons of energy and loves to play. He won’t sit still to save his life. He’ll let you snuggle him for a minute and then he’s off to explore again. He likes to wrestle and he is like a little tank. Sonnet will play with him and she's not all that soft... I'm afraid he's going to start crying but he just laughs instead. 

He studies things. I love to watch him study his hands, flexing his fingers, and looking at them as if they are amazing creations (because they are!). He has his opinions and he tries really hard to vocalize them. He sticks everything in his mouth (that’s the only part about this stage that I hate—so many germs!). He likes to be outside and he loves to sit in his little seat and go for bike rides with me.

Overall, he’s a pretty happy guy… as long as he’s got something to do or somewhere to go he’s in a pretty good mood. He smiles a lot. He also growls and roars a lot, like a little dinosaur. I’m not sure what all that noise is about, but he doesn’t seem concerned so I’m not either. He says “hi” and “Dad” and “baba.” I tried reaaaaaally hard to get him to say "Mama" first, but no luck! We’re working on waving and giving kisses.

I still believe his soft bald head is the source of all things good in the universe. J

Love, love, love my baby boy!