He got bigger, but not smarter

Most people have a phobia of one sort or another. I, for example, am terrified of needles. When I have to get a shot or blood has to be taken, I about have a panic attack, and I am especially frightened when I get a splinter in my foot that requires a needle to pick it out. My dad has an irrational fear of matches. Apparently, as a child, his older brother through lit matches at him, and in the process, he created a phobia that still plagues my dad. To this day, Dad won't eat a birthday cake that has had lit candles on it.

So, in the tradition of his mother and grandfather, Gus also has managed to come by a rather bazaar phobia. I discovered his phobia on a few innocent walks in the park. A few weeks ago, we were walking in the park like always - me on the left and Gus on my right. A young mother came towards us from the right with a baby stroller, and Gus about knocked me over freaking out and running off my side of the sidewalk. I didn't give this much thought since it was his first time to see a baby stroller, but since then we have encountered many more baby strollers with the exact same panic attack following each. Today, Gus about chocked himself on his choke chain, and in the process tripped me up pretty good. To make matters worse, we live in a town where everyone either has a baby or is pregnant - everyone!

The ridiculous nature of this fear reminds me of when Gus was a baby and we were first taking him on walks around Abilene. He wasn't afraid of cars when they drove by, but he was deathly afraid of the parked ones. Thankfully, he got over that fear. Hopefully, this baby-stroller phobia will also only be temporary.

Mommy's little bear grew up...way up

You might remember the following picture from a post I did April 27, 2007.

I say you might remember it because it is quite simply the cutest picture ever known to man-kind. In fact it was so cute, it inspired me to take a picture in this pose every month to document Gus's growth. For some reason (perhaps I am near-sighted both in eyes and in spirit) I didn't foresee this ever becoming difficult. However, today, to mark his nine-month birthday a few days late, BJ and I trudged out to the back yard to take our monthly picture. We got the picture, but let's just say Gus has grown. Take a look:

And one more:

In the first, he looks like he may be trying to kiss me, but by the second it is clear that he is pretty much just disgusted with his lot in life as an overly cute fluffy thing. And me? Well, I'm just trying to not fall over.

Coupons, Frisco style

In the mail, I periodically get the Frisco Style Magazine. It is fill with useful information, like where to find the best au paurs (spelling? it's some sort of a nanny) for your children, or what chefs in town serve the best forty dollar plate of French food I can't pronounce. This past issue had a coupon like all good magazines should have, except that this one wasn't for mac and cheese or cereal. It was $50,000 off the next house you buy in some gated community. If I hadn't already figured it out, this made it pretty clear to me that Frisco is not going to be a permanent home for BJ and I. But I guess for the time being, it at least makes for an amusing magazine.

The Pierce Curse as seen at Wendy's

When Pierces venture out into the public to do anything, it generally goes badly. This weekend while my brother and dad came to visit, we had a pretty good case in point. The three of us ran to Walmart to purchase some of the necessities (toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.) that they had inevitably forgotten. On our way out, we decided to stop by the Wendy's in the parking lot to get Bro a frosty and Dad his daily cup of afternoon coffee.

When we got to the Wendy's, Bro went up to order. This is how it went:

Bro: I would like a chocolate frosty.
Worker: Okay, anything else.
Bro: Yes, a large cup of Wendy's custom bean coffee.
Worker: Would you like that with M&M's or Oreo.
Bro: I want coffee.
Worker: Yes, it comes with M&M's or Oreo swirled in.
Bro: The coffee?
Worker: It's like a frosty with M&M's or Oreo's swirled into it (making a swirly motion with hands).
Bro: Uhm, I'm not pointing to the Frosty Twirl. I want a Wendy's custom bean coffee.
Worker: Oh. You want a coffee. Okay.

So after this fiasco (during which Dad and I had been trying to not totally burst out laughing in the background), Dad got his coffee. Unfortunately, when he took off the lid to put his creamer and sugar in, they had left absolutely no room for extras. It was filled to the brim. So Dad, after a good bit of spilling, took the little paper cups used for ketchup at Wendy's and started dumping out cups full of coffee until he had room for his creamer. Of course, during this process, he got coffee everywhere which I had to clean up on my way out. On our way to the car, we all decided that convenient store coffee is definitely the way to go. The Pierces will have no more Wendy's coffee, custom beans or not.

Day one of my new job

Yesterday, I started a new job . My employer, Abrakadoodle, is a franchise that offers art lessons for children ages 20 months to 12 years old. I'll be working about 10 hours a week, which is all I was really wanting to do this year. I think it will be pretty fun, and it will help out my resume next year when I'm looking for a real teaching position.

On an entirely different note, I had a fun time driving BJ to work this morning. BJ is a little luckier than the average working guy in that he gets sent off to work by the whole family. Since we only have one functioning car at the moment, I drive him to work, and of course, I bring the dogs along in the back seat. This morning while we were sitting at a red light, I looked back at Sienna, and she was staring out the window very intently. I followed her gaze, and it lead to a landscaping company's truck sitting next to us. In this truck, a gruff, manual-labor-working man was baby-talking to Sienna. He had a big goofy grin, and was gooing to our dog. It made me happy that our dogs in the back seat possible brightened someone's day. Unfortunately, Sienna's day-brightening abilities ended when we got home and she started whining for no reason whatsoever.