Well, Halloween at the Maynard household was pretty good. I didn't dress B up in his silly Bee costume again; I figured the 5 minutes on Saturday was enough torture.

But I was thrilled with the Trick-or-treaters in our new neighborhood! We had a ton of them! We ran out of candy for the first time in years! And the kids were in costumes. Some were pretty bland, others were inspired. My favorites were these two girls with a Goth vibe. I complimented them on thier costumes and one of them said "We're dead!" and I said, "Yeah, that's what's so cool about them".

Yeah, I used the word cool in a sentence in talking to 9-year olds. Not only am I a dork, I'm an old dork.

Anyway, the last time I handed out candy was back in Decatur and while there were a decent amount of Trick-or-Treaters, some of them didn't bother with the costumes. Kind of pissed me off. You want free sugar, you gotta cough up the cute costume. At least make an effort! A lot of these kids were Mexican; I suppose it's a cultural thing. Being kids, they caught on to the free candy bit but the costume requirement got lost in translation.

Jon, Brenden and I celebrated while watching Land of the Dead, George Romero's latest flesh-eating zombie movie. It was okay, plenty of gore and all, but I hate to say it: I liked the remake of Dawn of the Dead better. And I'm a Romero purist! I don't know what it was - all the heavy-handed messages were getting in the way of all that zombie action. And dammit, if you're going to have Dennis Hopper playing the bad guy in your zombie movie, I *insist* that he gets eaten alive!

No, Brenden didn't actually watch the movie with us. He was out like a light; I kept trying to wake him up because our schedule's a little messed up because of Daylight Savings Time. Damn government meddling. It's all George Bush's fault!

Fashion

fashion
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden at 21 weeks. He'll be at the 5 month mark next Sunday. Here he is in yet another fashionable outfit sent to him by his abuela, Ileana.

Shayne commented today on his spiffy wardrobe when I dropped him off at daycare this morning.

Bee with dad

Bee with dad
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

On Saturday Brenden and I went to the drop zone and I showed him off in his little Bee costume. He tolerated it for about 5 minutes. In the words of Steve Martin: "Aaaah, *that* was money well spent!"

This sucks

this sucks
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden, unfortunately, really didn't like his costume, and as you can see let us know about it.

No matter what Jon did he just wouldn't smile in the costume.

This really sucks

this really sucks
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Here's an up close view of Brenden's whole opinion of the bee business.

Ahh.. much better!

Ahh.. much better!
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

So we took the costume off, let him play in his Gymini (which he is rapidly growing too big for), and he fell asleep.

He was not posed - he loves sleeping with his hands behind his head. Of course everyone at the dz had to stop by, stare, and go "aaaaaawwww"!

This post has nothing to do with this picture

More semi-obscure movie references
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm kind of out of things to talk about, unless you want me to describe how Brenden and Big Fat Kitty decided to call a truce because it's so darn cold in the house. I'll just say that it's cute and leave it at that.

So I stole a meme from Helly:

THE RULES:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

"I also did Back Hyperextensions (15 lbs) but I haven’t found a good photo of that yet."

Yeah, okay; that was interesting. Actually looking over that month's posts, I realized what I need to do is revisit some of my favorite top 10 lists.

For today I'll revisit my Top Ten Favorite Actors:

1] Damian Lewis: Yep, still there. Happy 2nd anniversary, you redheaded hottie you! An Unfinished Lifeand Keane finally were received limited releases, which means I may be able to watch the DVDs here in the near future.

2] Eric Bana: Moved from #4 to #2 because FX keeps showing Blackhawk Down and I keep watching. I am so looking forward to Munich, where he plays a member of the Mossad that goes after the terrorists that killed those Israeli athletes during the Olympics. Eric, I hope you and Mr. Spielberg can dodge the fatwas, because Islamists seem to behave like Klingon women with PMS.

3] Ewan MacGregor: Ewan, Ewan, my wonderful ubiquitous Ewan! I love it when I can work the word 'ubiquitous' in a sentence.

4] Christian Bale: Just saw Batman Begins finally! I thought it was pretty good, though during the 'Bruce Wayne: Billionaire Playboy' scenes I kept wanting to yell "I'm Bateman!".

5] Ralph Fiennes: Zoomed waay up the list. I hear he's playing Voldemort in the Goblet of Fire. Kewl!

6] Jason Isaacs: Fell a couple of notches because he's been MIA.

7] Bill Paxton: Kind of MIA but he will always have a special place in my heart.

8] Joaquin Phoenix: (NEW!) Good intense actor, lots of presence, needs to lay off the donuts otherwise I think he's hot. He's playing Johnny Cash in Walk the Line which I'm salivating to watch.

9] Frances MacDormand: Still my favorite woman actor. Haven't seen her in anything in a while but I know she's still out there working.

10] THIS SPACE FOR RENT

Eat the Monkey

Eat the Monkey
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

As promised, here's photographic proof of Brenden's monkey habit. I'm sure Bucky Katt can sympathize.

Actually, last night B would not take his 5pm nap, so I fed him a little early. He packed away almost a full jar of veal (I couldn't find Gerber Monkey meat, unfortunately) and 4 oz of formula. Then the growling began.

So he tried to eat his monkey while I tried to get dinner ready for Jon and I plus the thousand other things I need to do once I get home from work (uh-oh. I'm starting on that mommy-martyr thing). Poor B is chewing, growling, and complaining. I kept thinking 'he's teething' but I couldn't see anything in his little gums. I gave him more things to chew on, including my finger, teething rings, a cloth diaper, and the cat. Okay, not the cat.

Poor B was visibly in distress and running a low-grade fever so I finally gave him another 4 ounces of formula and some baby tylenol. He finally relaxed and took a nap.

I woke him up at 7:30pm and gave him a good bath (he tried to eat the washcloth and the rubber ducky), got him dressed for bed (he tried to eat his nightshirt) and he slept like a stone.

This morning when I'm dropped him off at daycare, I discussed B's behavior with Shayne (the proprietor). We both looked in B's mouth (hard to do when he's trying to eat your fingers) and lo and behold, on the bottom left side of his gums, a little peek of tooth was poking through.

I shall miss that toothless grin of his.

Frisco Depot Museum

Frisco Depot Museum
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

That half a plushie you see on the right is a Gund - specifically, a Flopadoodle. B loves them because they are easy for him to grab and chew on. Currently he has a zebra, lion, and monkey Flopadoodles.

There's nothing funnier than watching Brenden thrash around in his seat, growling fiercely, while he's trying to gum a stuffed monkey to death. I'll try to get a photo.

Hugo, Ok(lahoma)

Hugo, Ok(lahoma)
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden at 20 weeks. He now eats some solid foods at both breakfast and dinner. For breakfast he gets oatmeal. Nancy mentioned oatmeal in one of her emails and I thought it might taste better than rice cereal. It must, because B won't eat the rice cereal now. Can't blame him; it does taste like really bland ass.

For dinner I'm trying to feed him whatever we eat - damn the current conventional wisdom. We had pot roast with vegggies and potatoes. He liked it; much better than the pureed peas out of the baby jar.

Speaking of those peas, they give his poop a wonderful neon green hue. You wanted to know that, didn't you?

Wake Up Two

Wake2
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

To Nancy: Because I can't post comments to hers or any other blogspot blog:

Re Anthony's behavior: You're scaring me! I hope he calms down for you. In the meantime, might I suggest a nice bottle of wine? For you, not him although in this case it might be better if he drank it.

Wake up!

Wake
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden at 19 weeks.

B likes to wake up sometimes at 4am. That kills me because I could really use that extra hour of sleep. I finally learned to give him 2 ounces of formula and haul him into bed with Jon and I. He usually plays with the collar of my nightgown for a few minutes, yawns, then snoozes until mom has to get up for work.

Big Fat Kitty is extremely upset that the hairless kitten has usurped his place on the bed and would like to know if anyone out there would like a slightly used housecat.

Bridge Day

Bridge Day
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Jon spent the weekend in West Virginia for Bridge Day. I forget exactly where, but one day a year the National Park Service lets BASE jumpers leap from this bridge. Jon jumped twice.

I spent the weekend with Ed and his wife Jenn. She was nice enough to make dinner and help keep Brenden entertained. B thought Jenn was da bomb; she kept him laughing all Saturday. Thanks guys!

Hello

Hello
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I should mention that we lost the services of Kristina, who got married and then needed a better paying job. Her last day with us was the day we went on vacation.

We got back on a Tuesday, and I went to work on Wednesday and Jon was going to watch B. After the third phone call (about 10 am) I hear Brenden crying in the background and my husband is having a panic attack.

I know all this sounds like some sexist stereotyping, but I'm *not* making this up.

I go home and we called around and found an in-home daycare center not too far off my path to work. This woman is great with kids (from what I have seen) and has only 3 others she takes care of. I feel bad, but on the other hand paradoxically I get more time with B because now I wake him up in the morning, get him dressed, and take a car ride with him.

In all fairness to Jon, when he and B went to the doc for B's 4 month checkup, they did just fine. Brenden even handled the shots like a trooper and cried only a little bit.

Like dad like son

Dad and B
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

My dad and Ileana bought Brenden a spiffy fall wardrobe and these overalls were included. For other fall fashion pictures nav over to my Flickr site!

Solid Food 3

Solid Food 3
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

So here's an interesting article on baby food myths. Here's an excerpt:

Take rice cereal, for example. Under conventional American wisdom, it's the best first food. But Butte says iron-rich meat — often one of the last foods American parents introduce — would be a better choice.

Dr. David Ludwig of Children's Hospital Boston, a specialist in pediatric nutrition, says some studies suggest rice and other highly processed grain cereals actually could be among the worst foods for infants.

"These foods are in a certain sense no different from adding sugar to formula. They digest very rapidly in the body into sugar, raising blood sugar and insulin levels" and could contribute to later health problems, including obesity, he says.

Screw the rice cereal, Brenden! Here comes the tacos!

Brenden's first solid food

Brenden's first solid food
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden at 18 weeks

The doc gave the OK for solids - here he's trying rice cereal. As you can see more of it goes on his face than down the gullet but it's a start. And lot's of fun.

Letter to Brenden Month 4:

Well my goodness, honey; you are developing. You roll over occasionally - you went from your belly to your back once while we were in Oklahoma and you occasionally go from back to belly at daycare. You are really good at rolling on your side so you can see or grab something. And you are getting great at grabbing (say that 3 times fast). I love playing "grab the toy and chew on it" with you. I either hold out or place a little stuffed animal on your belly, and you laboriously grab it and try to stuff it into your mouth. Loads of fun! Especially in the bathtub.

You are getting more use out of your Gymini which is a play mat with arches over it that have various toys dangling from it. You will grab at everything and I got some good laughs at when you grabbed the legs of the toy octopus and tried to stuff it in your mouth but were stymied because the legs wouldn't reach. You complained and growled a lot. Have you been spending too much time with the cats?

Your talking is pretty neat. You of course make absolutely no sense, but your tone of voice is so telling. I can tell when you are tired, when you want to do something different, when you are frustrated, when you are having fun, or when you just want to talk. Very little of this communication is actually ear-piercing cries. And the best part about your vocalizing is your reactions to other children and people around you. The daycare lady said you giggle like mad when the other kids are giggling and having fun. Inversely of course you cry when they cry. Still, what a neat display of empathy. I'm glad you are getting exposed to other kids.

Maybe I'm simply genetically programmed to not regard your crying as annoying, but you don't do the ear-piercing screams. Not yet anyway. Keep up the good work, kiddo! You'll be crawling in no time.

I am so happy; I have found a TV series that lives up to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the X-Files before it. I'm not talking about quality, by the way, though in their time both shows were definitely the best things going on TV (though the X-Files lost its way before the end).

I'm talking about Battlestar Galactica. I found the first 4 hour miniseries to be a little shaky and slow, but ultimately on the geek forums I defended it. I felt vindicated when the story quality took a quantum leap with season 1, and the first half of season 2 has maintained that level.

Like BtVS and the X-Files, I enjoy the story but it's the characters I appreciate the most and the Galactica is chock-full of fun ones. My favorite is Starbuck, who in this incarnation of BSG is a woman, which of course pissed off a lot of geeks. But Scully and Buffy were my favorites too, so it's tradition. And like Buffy and Scully, Starbuck has some great personality flaws. She's promiscuous and impulsive, and has made seriously bad judgement calls. She is the counterpart to Apollo, who in this incarnation a straight-arrow tool who nevertheless tries to go by his own judgement (and his calls are *much* better than Starbuck's) and is very much a leader.

The original Battlestar Galactica's bad guys were the Cylons, who were evil robots. The only reason the old series had evil robots was they could shoot them/blow them up with impunity and the TV censors wouldn't bat an eye. I have to hand it to Ron Moore, the creative genius behind the new BSG. These Cylons are enigmatic, resourceful, and have reasons for doing what they do. I even care about one of them, even if I don't completely trust her motives. Did I mention the human-looking Cylons only have 8 models? That means the actors who play these 8 models have a steady job no matter how many times their characters are killed. Chris Carter and Joss Whedon must be way jealous that they didn't think of that.

Wake Up

Wake Up
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Grandpa! Wake up! Grandpa! Grandpa.... Hey grandpa, mind if I chew on your shirt a while?

Sitting up

sitting up
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden at 17 weeks, or 4 months. Doesn't he look so grown up? Despite the sock coming off.

Those marks on his head are from him scratching. He has cradle cap (baby dandruff) and I was lax in cutting his nails. Suffering much guilt, I knuckled down and cut them. It took me about an hour.