Papa in Mexico, Day Two

After updating the blog last night, I headed out to Heavy Metal Science Club on my own while Laurel watched the boys. I nursed Bastian down just before leaving. It was a long, hard day. I deserved a couple of beers at Heather's while listening to heavy metal and discussing giant squid. It was the second week of Mix-Tape Meltdown which is like a graduate seminar on mix-tapes complete with peer review, note taking, questions, and a presentation on the tape itself along with a topic related to science.

Heather's tape is called Blood and Thunder and her scientific interest was in giant squid. Interestingly, the book about Giant Squid (Architeuthidae) that she had talked about how people used to mistake giant squid for sea monsters or serpents. So the whole Loch Ness thing could be a transplant Giant Squid, I suppose. Or something to that effect anyway. Aleks has had an interest in Sea Serpents for quite some time now, likely due to watching Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster five million times, and has had lots of questions about them, as though they were a real creature that I'm supposed to just know about. We looked stuff up on the internet about sea serpents, but mostly found information on myths and eels. Never had I heard this Giant Squid theory. So I encouraged Heather to stop by sometime soon with her book and show Aleks what it's all about.

I checked in on my internet arguments when I got home, then went to bed and slept long and deeply. This morning, Bastian threw a whole fit about the proper way to feed him (again), then I went back to bed. The boys played computer games in their pajamas for a long time, also playing with Lego, action figures, and eating gads of snacks all over the house. Bastian emptied the remains of the cereal all over the dining room at some point. Here's where the ants come in...
And on the couch, where he sat eating out the cereal out of a small cup while watching Aleks play free online games.
I sat in front of the computer too, eating breakfast at an ungodly late hour, talking on the phone, and accomplishing almost nothing.
In this photo, it's three-thirty in the afternoon. The boys are still in pjs, playing with Lego. Note the slice of bread on the floor beside Aleks, which he's been munching on since about ten o'clock. It was toast he'd made himself. Such a big boy using the toaster.
Bastian's true all-in-one training pants from Bum-Ware arrived today. He wanted to put them on immediately, but I assured him that he's completely capable of using the potty. I'm hoping that since I just bought these fairly expensive, custom-made diapers, he'll of course promptly potty learn. Or perhaps I just have high hopes.
Since we'd had a couple of days of not doing much and the boys have been watching movies and playing video games non-stop, I pushed them towards some art-making. The paints are unfortunately running pretty low...
Aleks painted a picture of Dora from Dora the Explorer, a cartoon I can't stand, though they have learned a bit of spanish.
He concentrated very hard, copying the picture from the DVD case.


So far, so good. I still miss Jon terribly. I did indeed get an email from him (and Kevin) yesterday, but it was brief:

Mexisafe
All is fine ladies. We have warm dinners in our stomachs and are heading up to the terrace for drinks. Miss you madly.

Jevin Wlidden

I was feeling pretty down at the end of the day yesterday, but today is just like any other. I'm not on my absolute best behavior, but I'm trying... They boys could care less, as usual.