When you've just got to fight

Put this down into the annals of ridiculousness.

As anyone with kids will tell you, dear readers, having a kid(s) is hard/frustrating/thankless/etc (but still amazing...at times). Sometimes you have pent up frustration that you just want to get out. Last night both Jim and I were feeling a little squirrely and up for a good fight. But...we had nothing to fight about. Seriously, we've been getting on famously. But we were still itching for a good brawl. So what did we argue about? Chaucer. I wish I could say I was lying, but there it is. In a moment of desperation we argued about Chaucer.

It started like this - Jimmy was harassing me for my reading skills. I am a much faster reader than him, but unfortunately my years of grad school trained me to read only the "important" parts thereby skipping over a lot of detail. So we argued about whose method of reading was better. This then transitioned into me (like always) telling him that I've read much more difficult works than him, including Chaucer. He said he had read Chaucer in high school. Ha! I replied, I read it in college and wrote a paper on the feminist undertones of the Canterbury Tales.

Jim: "I don''t like the Canterbury Tales"
Me: "What?!? They are pretty darn good. I doubt you really read it.
Jim: I did, it's all one big fart joke.
Me: What?!?! It is so not!!
Jim: Yeah, here's a direct quote 'Then he put his butt in the air and farted. hahaha'
Me: You are so full of it. You've never actually read it.
Jim: You didn't read it. What's your favorite tale?
Me: The Wife of Bath
Jim: (silence)
Jim: I am so pissed at you!! How can you say that it's not a big fart joke?
Me: How can you say that it is?! You've never even read it obviously!! You probably read the English translation whereas I read the actual Old English version (I tend to get a little arrogant when arguing)
Jim: There is no english version! It's all Old English
Me: Oh my god! You have no idea what you are talking about!
Jim: I'm so pissed.
Me: I'm going to bed.

Crap, what has Buster done to us. Even our fights have gotten absurd (and more nerdy than I'd like to admit).

A glimpse into our evenings

Our evenings as a family are usually low-key. We go for walks, go to the playground, eat dinner together and talk. We talk a lot. So last night as we were finishing up dinner and talking our conversation led to...well...Buster's predilection for eating cat poop.

(Let me aside here for a moment - we do not have cat poop lying around but as anyone with cats knows sometimes the cats trail a little poop out of their box. We're good about catching it, but sometimes it slips by until we walk past and notice it. We are not dirty people or crazy cat people with poop everywhere. Back to the story...)

Buster has a sixth sense about if there happens to be a small turd near the litter box. We've talked with our doctor about this and he says it's a phase all kids go through and he'll eventually stop being so fascinated with cat poop. What I don't understand is how he thinks it tastes good. So the other day I'm reading a magazine in the living room and I notice it's quiet. Too quiet. I call for Buster. No response. I get up to investigate and there's Buster sitting by the litter box. "uh-oh" I think to myself. He's facing away from me. I still have hope that all is well. I turn him around and (I'll save you the nastiness) but all is definitely not well. I yell "GROSS!!" he starts to cry (because I took the poop away from him) and I run upstairs with him to give him toothpaste (despite the fact that babies are not supposed to have toothpaste because they can get flouride poisoning, but desperate times called for desperate measures).

Okay, so back to last night. This is our family dinner conversation:

Jimmy: "Buster, I always thought our first serious discussion would be the sex talk. I never imagined it would be about how you can't eat cat poop"

Buster: "bababa...mamamama..."

After this serious discussion he decided it would be great fun to throw the parmesan cheese around the table. He laughed so hard he threw up.

Ahhh...parenthood is fun.

A better pictures of the mohawk

Do you know what I miss?

I miss Buster's natural mohawk when he was younger - check it out!

Also - how freakin' hilarious is this? Sam put his skateboarding helmet on Buster. I should mention the Dude is only a few days shy of 2 months.

I've been going through pictures (finally backing them up - we had a major laptop scare which catapulted me into moving backing up my computer from the bottom of the list to the top of the list) and came across these, which totally made me laugh out loud! I can't believe how much Buster has changed! To compare, here's what he currently looks like:

Favorites Take 2

Can you believe the Dude is almost 11 months old! My goodness! I honestly didn't think we'd last this far (not that we had much of a choice in any case.) You may recall in a previous post that I had listed some of Buster's favorite and least favorite things. It's time to revisit that and see what's changed! (see here for the 7 month list http://lifewithbuster.blogspot.com/2008/02/favorites.html)

Loves: Bathtime (this hasn't changed)
Hates: Getting dressed (this also hasn't changed)

Loves: The swings at the playground
Unimpressed with: The slide at the playground

Favorite Food: Whatever we happen to be eating (gone are the days of enjoying a quiet meal)
Least favorite food: Nothing. The kid will eat anything (including cat poop)

Favorite Cat: Beaker (because she has longer hair, which is easier for him to pull)

Favorite Toy: Drums (thanks Becky...)
Least Favorite Toy: the Jumperoo

Favorite activity: Walking/crawling
Least Favorite Activity: Sitting still

Loves: Mornings
Hates: Bedtime

Loves: Biting (that is, he loves biting other people. He doesn't like it so much when people bite him)
Hates: Kisses

Favorite TV show: None (it requires sitting still)
Favorite Book: Dr. Seuss' ABC

Strange fact about Buster: He enjoys being the bathroom when one of us is showering.

Best friend: Sammer

Loves: Going for walks in his stroller
Loves even more: Going for walks in the Snugli

Favorite Political Candidate: Obama (he gets bored easily so he likes "change")
Least Favorite Political Candidate: Ralph Nader

Loves: To yell
Hates: Being quiet

Loves: To help us cook (he will gladly get the spices for you)
Hates: To help us clean (as soon as you put something away he will gladly get it back out for you in case you may need it later)

Loves: Singing
Hates: the word "no". A mere utterance of this word will cause a temper tantrum the likes of which you have never seen. It's pretty hilarious

Favorite outfit: None. He prefers to be naked. (This has not changed)

What have you noticed are his likes/dislikes? All comments are welcome!!