Mountain Doodles

This past weekend young Bugsly welcomed a visitor, Uncle Don, aka Mountain Doodles. Aptly named for his fondness for a syrupy, caffeine-charged, cool yellow drink, Mountain Doodles quickly ingratiated himself to Bugsly with his high octane antics.

Incurring massive oxygen debt, Mountain Doodles set a new standard for entertaining Bugsly Doodle by bouncing her around the house at high speeds at the slightest sign of fussiness. As a sign of ultimate respect, Mountain Doodles brought Bugsly Doodle a great gift, a new throne from which she could reign over Dodson Manor and her minions.

It was a cold weekend in Omaha and the activity schedule was minimal. Good food was cooked, some wine was poured, and a mall was walked. Given that the transplanted Texans, formerly of Wisconsin, had little recent experience with weather less than forty degrees Fahrenheit, the weekend breezed by quickly as we remained huddle inside for a vast majority of the time. Mountain Doodles did get a taste of downtown Omaha, taking a brief walk in the Old Market District, stopping only for a cafe mocha and visits to absurd shops. The rain quickly dampened this outing however and we returned home to further amuse Bugsly (whom remained behind on official business with Mom).

But it wasn't all ham and plaques. Departure time arrived early on Tuesday morning and Mountain Doodles set forth on his six hour journey back to the land of cheese. His energy, broad shoulders, and Axe cologne will be sorely missed at Dodson Manor.

In other Bugsly news, the Stage 1 diapers have been shed and Stage 2 has begun. What does this mean? It means more surface area to quickly absorb the emigrants of "Tinkletown", a blessing for the Bugsly minions assigned to clean her royal tushy.

Must to eat....everything

So that wacky Bugsly Doodle is at it again. This time, she's stuffing anything and everything she can into her little pie hole. Fingers, toys, cat tails, wood tables - you know, normal teething items. As the pictures illustrate, she has found joy in our table and in a wonderful toy provided by Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jen. She may not be able to figure out how to get the music table to make those crazy sounds, but she can insert quarts of drool into and onto the device.

It seems like she will have some teeth erupting at any minute, so we are constantly checking out her gums for any sign. Some days it seems like she is favoring the left side of her mouth and other days it seems like the right. While the two lower central incisors are generally the first to appear, other teeth have been known to come first.

Melanie is back to work from her little break. Today was her first day back after a four day weekend. Bugsly did well until she came home, then she let her anger be known. I decided to slip downstairs quick and share some photos whilst young Melly tends to the lass.

On a final note, my apologies go to the anonymous commenter whose remarks I had stricken from the record. There should always be freedom of the press and I was not thinking before I removed the stunningly brilliant comment from the first entry where somebody wrote, "This blog is weak." I can understand a young urban hipster's frustration at doing a search for exciting terms such as "baby", "doodle", or "bugsly" and finding our lame baby blog. In the future, I will try to make our baby blog more cutting edge, perhaps I will paint some racing stripes onto the baby or glue some aerodynamic fins to her sides and head.

Sceptre of Satan?

Just a quick sidenote on a Bugsly related item. The following sinister sceptre as been spotted in Bugsly Doodle's possession. Apparently it gives her power over all things clown and it frightens us. Shame on whomever provided this "gift" which is more likely a gateway to eternal suffering.

Bugsly Doodle and the Poison Apple Orchard

This weekend has been the perfect time for some good family fun. I (Melanie) have a 4-day weekend as it is fall break at UNO and I don't plan on doing much work. As such, I am taking responsibility of blog writing today. These pictures were from our day yesterday visiting a local orchard and hanging out in our backyard playing with the cats. The orchard is in Nebraska City which is about a 50 min drive. Lucky for us, they were having a wine tasting there yesterday, so we got to sample some of Nebraska's finest wines. OK, so Nebraska wine is pretty average, but it was a good outing none the less.

Zoa enjoyed the trip as long as she was in the carrier. She loves the Baby Bjorn and actually starts to cry when we take her out. She has also begun to take a great interest in the cats. Yoko is her new best friend and she enjoys grabbing huge tufts of fur out of her, pulling her whiskers, and sticking her fingers in her ears. Yoko does more than put up with the abuse as she is often purring while being mauled by the baby. I think that she is just happy someone is paying attention to her. Cuzco occasionally allows himself to be accosted (see photo), but keeps his distance usually. Zoa is dying to get her hands on Mewmew, but she keeps a safe distance from the baby. On the rare occasion that Zoa cries, however, Mewmew must check her out to make sure she is OK.

Well, enough talk of babies and cats, it is a perfect fall day, so we are off to enjoy it. More soon,
Melanie

Presenting...Lady Zoa Amelia Swinebottom..of Dodson Manor

Greetings all. Though I have often ridiculed blogs in the past for being of useless opinions and pointless information, I have decided to steal the good idea from Melanie's friend, Ceri. While our day-to-day happenings may not exactly be glorious, I would be willing to guess that there are those out there who would be very happy to get regular updates about little Zoa. That and the ability to post pictures of our little Bugsly Doodle sealed the deal.

So today is our first posting. I am going to start out with a few new pictures that were taken this morning. Zoa usually hits the hay at about 11 PM and wakes up at 7 AM, plays for a little while, then takes a morning nap. You are lucky enough to catch her during this in-between time, when she can be at her cutest.

She is fast approaching her 5th month (Oct 19th) and is doing great. She is extremely bright eyed, smiley, and full of laughs. She is making the most of her workout time with Dad. She is standing and sitting (with help for balance), doing push-ups, rolling, and starting to move those little legs to crawl.

Enjoy!