Our little puppy

Miles has adopted many canine tendencies of late. He walks on all fours, he loves chewing socks, and he begs for food like crazy. Even though we know we're probably not supposed to feed him "people food," we always give in. Miles' favorite is ice cream. Just like his mommy.

Treasures

Here are some of the treasures I found while unpacking.

This little number has survived approximately two decades of life and moves. Any guesses as to what it is supposed to say? A finished project, perhaps? Nay, it would have said "A Clean Room" if I had ever finished it. Sadly, my motto hasn't really changed.

I bought these photos at a sweet Flea Market in Leipzig, German. I still get a kick out of them.

I just love the look he is giving his woman!

Nothing can come between a young man and his accordion.

This one is my favorite.

Grrrrr

Lately when I have thought about something to blog, I only come up with petty annoyances. No one likes a Negative Nellie, so I decided that an attitude adjustment may be in order. However, like diets, attitude adjustments are best started tomorrow.


Here are some examples of my grievances:

1. My mom recently read that Miles is on the upswing in name popularity. Boo. We like names that are not too popular, but that are also not too strange. Miles is just perfect. What next, some lame new vampire franchise with a protagonist named Miles? Serenity now.
2. Miles cruises. He's a cruiser. He has been cruising for a couple weeks. Cruising? For others of the uninitiated, cruising apparently describes the action of babies "walking" while holding on to furniture. Where did that word come from? Are people in Texas making up words so I will take nonsense words with me to Wisconsin and look silly? How had I never before heard "cruising" used in this manner? Have you heard it? Simple words that are unfamiliar to me but somehow in other peoples' vocabularies disturb me.
   
3. Design Star stinks, especially this season. "My" shows are the artsy reality shows: Top Chef, Project Runway, Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (I came late to that one), and Design Star. Except the people on Design Star generally seem like hacks and I think Gary or I or any number of mildly artistic people could do just as well as they have been doing. The new production values are cheesy, too.
   

I think it's fairly obvious that if these are the types of things I have to complain about, I have it pretty darn good. This is true. I decided not to provoke the universe into punishing me for my grouchiness, and I've turned over a new leaf. Promise.

Bloomin' Algae

When we first arrived in Fort Worth, we were distressed to find that our faucets streamed pond water. I suppose a more accurate description would be that the tap water tasted and smelled suspiciously like pond water. Since I am still breastfeeding, and I pretty much assume that any toxins I consume will drop Miles' IQ a few points or inflict untold damage on his endocrine and other important systems, I naturally investigated the cause of said water funk.

According to the official City of Fort Worth water guru, the water in Fort Worth is perfectly safe to drink, and the odd taste and smell can be attributed to "algae blooms" in local reservoirs. Is that all? I thought public officials were only supposed to tell us things that make us feel safe and cozy. I do not feel cozy when I imagine the water pictured above flowing from my tap! That guy must not be elected.

Aside from the nastiness of my mental image, the water really was unpalatable. We had been drinking lots of milk and bottled water until this week, when we noticed that the water tasted decidedly less like a pond. This is great news because there is just something un-American about not being able to drink your own tap water. We still drink a lot of milk.

I gave blood today.

Well, just a little. My stats from my doctor's appointment:

Height: 27 1/4 inches (75%ile)
Weight: 17 pounds 15 ounces (50%ile)

It was strange that everyone at the doctor's office kept calling mom "Gary", but I also thought it was odd that she didn't correct anyone. Adults.

Dopey Roper

If only Dopey weren't such a horrible nickname. . .

Miles has the big blue eyes, bald head, pokey ears, super smile, sweet disposition, inability to speak, and small stature of none other than Dopey Dwarf.

Howdy, y'all!

We Ropers are enjoying our new Texas home. Our apartment is large, nice, and bright. We have enjoyed exploring FW and have checked out some great museums, the old stockyards district, Ikea, the botanic gardens, the flea market, the Country Market grocery store (a destination in and of itself), and some restaurants and tortilla factories. We still need to visit the awesome zoo, but the heat has been a deterrent.

Dr. Gary's first rotation is surgery, and although busy, it is not as bad as he feared it would be. He's doing a great job, and he is convinced that Fort Worth is still the Wild West due to all of the gunshot and stabbing victims he sees every day.

Miles has developed a few new tricks recently.

1. He scoots all over. Not a crawl nor an army crawl, but his own unique mode of locomotion learned about four weeks ago.
2. Miles started eating baby food at about 5.5 months old (a month ago). He had been very interested in food for weeks so we decided to let him take the leap. Turns out he's a little omnivore. He hasn't turned anything down, and he is very calm and still when we feed him. It seems he doesn't want to interfere with the process; he wants his food as quickly and efficiently as possible!
3. He has a third tooth on the bottom as of last week. I am pleased with this development as I prefer odd numbers to even, and asymmetrical mouths are much funnier than symmetrical mouths.
4. On Monday, Miles decided that standing is way cooler than laying down or sitting so he started pulling himself up on the TV stand, grunting and puffing all the way up. He practices his new skill at every opportunity, which requires us to actually pay attention to the little bugger because he has no way down but to fall.
   
5. Miles squeals with delight when he sees pictures of himself on the computer screen.
6. Miles loves to read books.

We are quasi-settled in here. There remain numerous boxes full of mysterious contents of undetermined origin for which it is difficult to find places. The goal is to deal with those by the 16th because we will have been here one month and I'm afraid that if I don't set a hard deadline, our nice apartment will look like a refugee camp until we move out.