A boy thing?

So in addition to Alex getting all these ailments that Grace never got, I am also finding other situations I never had to deal with before. In the past week I've had to call poison control (possibly eating Lipitor - no harm done), deal with a "string burn" on the back of his neck (that's what I get for giving Grace a ball of yarn to play with) and last night Alex managed to topple one of our stained glass windows on top of his head (small cut on his head and lots of little glass pieces in his hair, but luckily no emergency room trip needed). And on top of it all he has another runny nose and cough even though he just finished up a round of antibiotics. But through it all my funny little guy is still happy as ever. I don't know how much of it is a "boy thing" and how much is a "second child thing". But boy two kids in the same family sure can be different.

Olympics again

I was watching an interview with Bode Miller tonight after he screwed up and ended up 0 for 5 at the Olympics. It really bothered me. He made it sound like the whole reason for going to the games was to have a good time in Torino, which he apparently did (though he was quick to point out that he didn't get drunk when he went out at night). Now I'm all for the athletes stepping away from the "win at all costs" mindset, but I think if you go to the freaking Olympics you should certainly do everything in your power to perform at the top of your game. And listening to the announcers during Bode's last event made it sound like he hadn't - that he'd just slacked off and wasn't performing at the level he had been in the past. I couldn't help but think about the poor people who would have loved to be on the Olympic ski team that would have pushed themselves to do their very best to shine for their country. I also wondered if Nike has a clause in their contract with him about how performs - they certainly put enough money behind him this year. I did see that they have a version of his ad where he talks about not getting any medals, so at least they thought this one out.

Oh, and a big Happy Birthday goes out to Brian today!

(Insert theme from Sanford & Son here)

Snapped this pic with the camera through the windshield this afternoon, so the quality is not the best. But I couldn't believe it when I saw it - I've never seen a truck laden with so much stuff, piled so high into the air. And on top of that the back passenger side tire was blown out and this guy just kept riding on the rim. At this point he was turning as I was going straight, so I have no idea how much further he drove, though I know he'd already been driving on that rim for 3 blocks.

Jumping into the gene pool

I showed this picture to Grace tonight and asked her who was in it. She said "That's me Mommy, but who is that other girl?" Fun to tell her the little one was not her but was actually me, and the big girl was Aunt Kathy. I think it was from April 1969, so I was almost 2 and Kathy was almost 4.

Obligatory Olympics Post

Winter Olympics kicks butt all over the summer ones. For many years now I have found myself much more fascinated with all the cold weather events than just about any of the summer ones (maybe it's from growing up in Texas - anything involving snow is just so foreign to me). But I've also realized that good announcers make all the difference. I totally got into watching a men's biathalon event - shooting combined with cross country skiing of almost 8 miles. The announcers were just so excited toward the end of the event that you couldn't help but be on the edge of your seat. For CROSS COUNTRY SKIING. And in true Olympic fashion, the winner pulled it out in the last few yards, even after a small stumble that made you think he'd sunk his chance for a sprint at the end.

It's also been fun trying to make Grace understand how the games work. She now knows about the gold, silver and bronze medals. We watch some of the events together and I point out to her how happy people are when they do well, or how tired they are when they've finished. She did see a female downhill slalom skier fall during a run, so we talked about how disappointed the skier must have been. Of course then she followed it up with one of her OTHER favorite topics of the moment by asking if the skier died after the fall. I think she was relieved when I said no and was able to point out that the person on TV was talking to her right then. She'd still prefer to watch her Max & Ruby dvd, but I guess getting just a little bit of Olympic excitement is good enough for an almost-4-year old.

Weather

What's going on??? I see that the official high today was 86 degrees, it's now 46 degrees and is supposed to get down to 35 tonight.

And the high tomorrow is supposed to be 38??? Sheesh!

One Hundred

Grace and I had quite the clash this afternoon, so when I was kissing her goodnight I reminded her how even though we sometimes get angry with each other, we still love each other.

Grace: Mommy, you will always love me. You love me one hundred.

Me: Yes, I love you one hundred.

Grace: I love you one hundred too, Mommy.

Don't know what it means, but I'm guessing it's pretty good.