Friday, December 17, 2010

All kinds of stuff





We have a possum that's eating birdseed spillage from the feeder late nights. We've never seen another possum with his coloring before. His fur is a dark gray, but it's kind of silvery in the lights of the backyard. Jav has taken to this little guy for some reason. Any time I mentioned anything about feeding one before now he would scowl and protest. But he doesn't say a word when I say maybe I should throw a handful of trail mix out there every evening. The problem is he doesn't grace us with his presence every night. So if I throw food out there and he doesn't come, Molly gets an unintentional snack. One night he was out there grazing for quite awhile, and I needed to let Molly out for the last time before bedtime. So I went out on the porch and started making noise, and he slowly sauntered to the back corner of the yard and crawled up on top of the fence. I came in to get Jav to try to scare him on over, because Molly will charge a fence and possibly could have knocked him off of there. But even though Jav was only about 3 feet away, the possum just sat and stared at him when he tried to shoo him away. Before last night we hadn't seen him for about 5 days and were starting to think something happened to him. But I noticed Zoe with her nose pressed against the French doors and there he was. I went to tell Jav, who was about to take a shower. He came almost running out of the bathroom to get to the window so he could see for himself. He's named him Pepe, even though I told him that was silly. Everyone knows that's a skunk name.

Joel is doing so many wonderful things right now, and has started playing while on his knees, which I think is so cute. He's also sitting still much more to play with things, and he has the best posture. I guess babies haven't been beaten down by life stress yet. I used to stand pretty straight, but for the last 3-4 years my posture has really slipped. Joel is inspiring me to try and stand straighter. He's still not walking yet, but I'm in no hurry. He loves to open and close drawers and cabinets and hide toys in them. I could watch him play all day. He still has crazy happy legs when something delights him, but now he's added a fake laugh for effect. It's hilarious.

And then there's Gabriel. We have a new "Elf on the Shelf", a gift from our neighbor. It is a little elf that supposed to sit high up in different rooms to watch what's happening all day, then flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa each night. According to the book, he will land in different places around the house when he comes back, and it's supposed to be a game to try and find him. At least that's how it's supposed to work. Our son does not like Dipsy (Gabriel got to name him.) We're not sure if it's because he's not supposed to touch him (according to the book, it could take away the elf's magic), or if it's because Gabriel's planning to be bad and doesn't want anyone to report that to Santa, or if he's genuinely afraid of the little guy. Even I have to admit that he looks a tiny bit creepy, kind of like pinocchio with a red suit on. The last few days Gabriel seems to be accepting him a little more, but maybe he's just a little young for the concept.

We're watching Scrooged. I love Buster Poindexter as the ghost of Christmas past. "It's a bone!" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !


No comments: