Critters

We had heard that North Carolina had critters. I'm fine with critters. In fact, I think they're fun. Bugs, on the other hand, I despise. I moved to Durham with a calm assurance that with Emily having grown up in Missouri that she would provide emotional support in the event that I encounter strange bugs, or, heaven forbid, SPIDERS. Man, I hate spiders. Little did I know that it would only be through hand-to-hand combat that I would become empowered to take on the abnormally large bugs in this place. More on this later.

Back to critters. We have been here for roughly two months and have already had several interesting visitors. Take this guy for example:

Harley found Mr. Turtle out in the backyard and wouldn't leave him alone. Poor guy was huddled up in his shell trying to protect himself, I'm guessing, from Harley's breath. Because we all know that Harley's breath is much worse than his bite. So I rescued him and brought him in to play with Rex for a minute. He peed on the floor and then I let him lose.

A couple days ago I was sitting in the living room watching Special Agent Oso with Rex and Harley while Em was out running errands. I looked over at the fireplace and happened to notice a long, dark object, which I initially thought may have been a piece of rubber hose that Rex tore off of something. Then I realized it looked a lot like snake. "Did Emily buy Rex a toy snake or something?" I thought to myself. That's when I noticed the very active forked tongue. Not knowing its venomosity (I made this word up, but it is essentially an index of how venomous a snake is), I freaked, grabbed Harley (How he didn't spot him first is beyond me) and Rex, threw Harley in his crate and ran to grab the mop so I could pin it down. I threw Rex on the couch (without missing a beat he jumped right back into watching Oso). I pinned the snake down and picked him up by the back of the neck like a true man would. Calmly, I let him wrap his his body around my arm. And then I just played with it for about 15 minutes. It was actually pretty fun. No, I didn't kill it. I just turned it lose. Here he is:


In addition to these amazingly cool critters we've been visited by many squirrels, numerous rabbits, a few frogs, a toad (there is a difference), and plenty of DISGUSTING bugs and spiders, including Wheel Bugs (Google it) and cicadas (locusts from hell). The first night I was here in Durham, I was brutally attacked by a cicada and narrowly escaped with my life due to my innate ninja skills. One calculated karate chop later, the cicada found himself totally incapacitated and teetering between life and death. Mercifully, I put him out of his misery.

Rex Plays Rockband

My Little Boy is 22 Months!

I cannot believe Rex is 22 months!  It feels like everyday he has learned a new phrase or is doing something else that keeps our lives interesting.  He's definitely getting more opinionated, but with that he is getting so much more independent and funny.  Here are the things keeping us on our toes lately:

 

1.  He says, "ere he eees" (there he is, or there it is) for everything.  When Josh comes in the door, when Harley comes into the room, or if I finally get him something he's been asking for.

 

2.  He is just starting to be able to eat a few things with a spoon.  We let him eat cereal with milk and yogurt with a spoon and he's doing pretty well.

 

3.  When he toots he says, "I toot" and then grunts a little bit more to try and produce another noise that will keep us laughing.

 

4.  When he gives us a hug he always says, "ahhh" and pats our back while he's doing it.  He also says "ahhh" when we're talking about anything being cute.

 

5.  He calls Harley, our dog, "Har".  They are buddies, but they occasionally fight over toys. It is hilarious.

 

6.  He counts EVERYTHING.  Anytime there is more than one of something, he has to count it.  Only he counts like 2..3..4..5..6..9..10.  One, seven and eight do not exist.

 

7.  When we're going somewhere I ask him if he wants to go to ____?  He always responds with, "okay", instead of "yes".  This also applies to food he wants. 

 

8.  He likes to have 2 of everything, one for each hand.  If he has this he can walk around for hours with the same two toys in his hands.

 

9.  We take him to a Gymboree play and learn class each week.  He is the loudest, busiest kid in the class and keeps it interesting for all the rest of the participants.  One Mom actually told me, "I look forward to coming to class each week just to see what he's going to do." Thanks, lady.

 

10. One day while changing his diaper he was being a stinker, so I said, "you're a punk".  Now he says, "you're a punk" whenever he thinks it would get a laugh.

 

11. When we get him out of his crib after naps and in the morning we ask him to put his froggy back in the bed.  He throws the frog in and says, "Peace".  Wonder where he learned that?

 

12. He does not care what we think of him and actually laughs sometimes when we get mad at him.  Any tips?

 

13. He is not a snuggler, but first thing in the morning we'll bring him in our bed and he'll watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in bed with us.  It's the closest thing we get to a snuggle.

 

14. He hates the store and I cannot run errands with him.  If there is something I have to do, I can trick him by putting him in the stroller and telling him we're going to take a walk.  This usually buys me about 10 minutes of time until he figures out we're just in the store.  I can buy about 10-15 minutes at the grocery store by putting him in the carts that look like cars.

 

15. He's a really picky eater and likes to have the same thing every day, until one day he'll decide he hates that one thing he had everyday for the last week and on the floor it goes.

 

16.  We love how friendly he is.  He will wave and say hi to complete strangers out in public, and we don't even have to encourage him.

 

17.  After brushing his teeth right before bed he likes to blow kisses to himself in the mirror and say, "night, night, Rex" before we go in his room to go to bed.  We do this EVERY night.

 

18.  He loves animals and knows the name of most animals and the noise they make.  They come out in succession.  Example:  (MOM) "Rex, what's this?"  (Rex) "A cow...MOOO".

 

19.  He loves to laugh and will belly laugh if you make a goofy face at him or peek around the corner and surprise him.

 

20.  He is super tough and I really can't remember the last time he cried from getting hurt.  He falls and hits his head on things all the time, gets right back up and says, "I okay!"

 

 

Obviously, we love our Rexman despite the difficulties that come with trying to understand a toddler! And lets be honest...who could get mad at this little face?

Alger Family Trip to Nags Head, NC

I have been meaning to give an update for almost a month now and unfortunately with all the other things that needed to get done, it kind of fell to the bottom of the list!  SO, we moved to North Carolina.  We arrived here on July 6th only to find out that our truck of stuff was still in Ohio and wouldn't arrive for a couple days.  Once the truck arrived, we unpacked and quickly repacked for a week vacation to the Outer Banks, NC with my family.  Here are some pictures of the trip, which was amazing:

We played at the beach:

We had an Alger Family Beach Olympics:

Team 1

Team 2

3-legged race

At night we went crab hunting:

These little guys come up out of the sand at night and run around.  Once you get past the part where they remind you of really huge spiders, they're actually kind of cute.

We had a Rock Band Tournament in which everyone participated, even Grandma and Grandpa:

And what would a vacation be without a little guy-bonding, fishing time?

And my brother took our family photos:

It was such a fun trip, thanks Mom and Dad!  We didn't want it to end.  Hopefully since we live close we'll be able to do it again soon.