The Lonely Goatherd

Joseph's new favorite part of the San Diego Zoo is the children's petting zoo. Specifically, the goats at the petting zoo.

During our first visit to the goats, Joseph decided that they needed some extra-help with their breakfasts, so he started hand-feeding the goats.


I thought that his duck-feeding experience earlier this year (when an anxious duck bit him) had traumatized him, but Joseph seemed to have put that behind him as he shoved little fistfuls of leaves into the goats' faces.


Fortunately, these goats weren't as impatient as the ducks at the Wild Animal Park; they seemed to enjoy having someone do the work of getting the individual leaves off of the branches.


We spent a good half hour feeding them without a single goat ever biting Joseph. This is pretty remarkable considering that Joseph's death grip on the leaves--which he fed to them one at a time--often only left a tiny bit of green sticking out of his fists.


Each feeding followed the same routine: Joseph would pick a leaf, select a goat and then force his hands towards the general area of the goat's mouth (i.e., nose, eyes, or neck). The goats wouldn't realize what was going on at first, but eventually they'd take aim at Joseph's darting offering.

After a few seconds of reaching out and missing Joseph's never-quite-stationary hand, the goat would eventually get a hold of the leaf. Joseph would hold on for a brief second and then snap his hand back, rub his own tummy, and then look up beaming proudly and say "mmmm!!!"


The cycle then repeated itself for 30 minutes.



Here are a couple videos of the scene:

I love this first video because of his little nod after the goat takes his leaf, and because Joseph takes the branches of leaves away from the goat so that he can pluck off a single one to feed the goat.

I love this next video because I think he imitates me and Erin when we try to get him to eat his meals by saying, "Eat some more. It's yummy!"

Here, Joseph comes up to the goat and says "yum!" The goat ignores him so he says "more! more!" as he shoves the leaves towards the goat's face.

When we went back for a second visit to the goats, there weren't any fresh branches out, so Joseph dug around in the dirt for old leaves to feed the goats. With a little extra coaxing, the goats even ate some of the dirty old leaves, which pleased Joseph.

We're still looking into local pre-schools to see which ones are feeders for the more selective goatherd prep-schools. Otherwise we don't really see how he'll ever get into an ivy-league animal husbandry program.

Opera!

Joseph is now the youngest opera fan in his extended family.

For our anniversary this year, Erin and I went to the Los Angeles Opera's production of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute." This is by far my favorite opera, and I was excited for Erin to experience it as well.

To get ready for the opera Erin read a short book about it and began listening to a recording of the opera to familiarize herself with the music.

(If anyone is interested in learning more about opera, I highly recommend a series of books published by Black Dog. Each book contains a brief background to an opera, the full text of the libretto, and best of all a well-respected recording of the opera.)

The cd's to the opera were in the car for most of January and for Christmas Erin got me a video from a production of the opera that I had been to a few years ago.

As a result of this saturation, we'd often find ourselves humming bits of songs or singing little parts of it as we went about our days (Erin will freely admit that she has recurring dreams where she speaks German, but communicates solely by re-combining the eight-or-so phrases she actually knows).

The highlight of the opera is an aria (Der Hölle Rache) by the Queen of the Night:

This video is worth watching in it's entirety because it's amazing and because it gives you an idea of what I'm about to describe.

Although a recording of Erin imitating this would be a valuable contribution to the world wide web, that's not going to happen (but I'm guessing if you came for a visit, it wouldn't take much of a bribe to get Erin started). Joseph, however, has frequently enjoyed Erin's impromptu arias and has even begun to imitate her.

Those of you already familiar with the opera will understand my concern as I listened to Erin sing for Joseph a song in which a mother tells her child that the child will no longer be her child unless the child kills its father. Apparently, Joseph never understood Erin's accent, because he hasn't made any obvious attempts at my life.

Despite the message, Joseph loved hearing that particular aria. We'd ask him, "Joseph, can you sing opera?" and he would then attempt to belt out a few of his own high-F's.

At this point in the post it would be great if I had a video of him doing his impersonation of the Queen of the Night, but I'm just going to cite Joseph's refusal to perform on command in front of a camera and move on. BUT--if I EVER get a video of him doing his opera singing, I will post it and put an announcement at the front of this blog.

If you're curious as to what the Toddster's singing of this aria sounds like this should give you an idea:

(Thank you, Florence Foster Jenkins)

We only realized the extent of Joseph's love of opera on our recent trip to Disneyland. After riding in the car for nearly two hours, Joseph, who really travels well, got antsy in the car and started fussing. We offered him food and a drink, but really he just seemed tired of being in the car.

In desperation we turned on the cd player and switched to the Queen of the Night aria. Instantly--and Erin will back me up on this--Joseph stopped whining and began to smile and say "opera! opera!"


It's a good thing we've got plenty of social workers and lawyers in this family, because I'm fairly certain we're guilty of cultural abuse.

To Be Simple

A lot of people (three, to be precise) have been asking for a new post.

Since the last post (and a good chunk of the comment section) was all about how great a husband I am, I figured I would just leave that one up there for a while to give everyone a good chance to soak it up.

(Note: If you’ve already rolled your eyes or groaned as a result of reading that last line, you may want to stop reading this post and go to another blog or skip to the end of this post to the part labeled “Conclusion”)

Today, I considered writing an April Fool’s Day post, but I couldn’t come up with anything, and Joseph’s only prank ideas involved him quietly taking the furniture polish into another room and then running around the house spraying until I could catch him (true story).

Since the last post was about gifts, I will continue on the theme of gifts.

Love Languages
When I was younger, I remember my sisters and a lot of other people getting really excited about a book that helped you figure out your “Love Languages” (If you’re unfamiliar with it you can consult my favorite source for trivial information: the wikipedia).

Basically, the way I understand it is that everyone feels loved (and shows love) through different forms of expression or different “love languages.” The book divided these languages into neat compartments including: having nice things said to you, doing things for others, or physical touch. My personal favorite language was “receiving gifts.” When I first heard this, my initial thought was “That’s so superficial/greedy!” (My initial thoughts often feature two or more words with slashes in between them. Sometimes, after the initial thought wears off, the slashes turn into ampersands, but not usually).

My Love Language
Now that I’m older, my views have changed. I’ve realized that having “receiving gifts” as your love language is actually a really great way to get people to give you stuff (my parents are so proud of the wisdom and maturity that comes to me with age).

With this realization I’ve made a concentrated effort to let everyone know that my love language—my exclusive love language—is, in fact, receiving gifts.

As someone once said:

“Presents are the best way to show someone how much you care. It is like this tangible thing that you can point to and say ‘Hey man, I love you this many dollars-worth.’”

The other great thing about love languages is that the one by which you feel love does not have to be the same as the one by which you show love. So while I know that people love me when they give me gifts, I can show love to them in many other ways such as “giving them personal space” or “hiding unhealthy food from them by putting the cookies in the back of the cupboard behind the cans of cream of mushroom soup.”


My In-Laws
I’ve been blessed with great in-laws who have picked up on my subtle (but concentrated) efforts to let them know that the only way I feel love is through gifts, and they have risen to the challenge.

For example:

Lindsey
For my birthday, Lindsey gave me a German novel that I’ve wanted to read for a while. The book is titled “Die Vermessung der Welt,” which any high-school student with at least a year of German will tell you means “Messing with the World.” (Actually, that’s not at all what it means. This is just one reason why you should never trust the foreign language skills of a high-school student).

This year, I set the goal to read (and finish) a book a month. In January, I read and finished three books. I haven’t read any since then, but if I pick up again in April, I will still be on pace to read 12 books by the end of the year. Erin doesn’t think that’s what I had in mind when I made my goal. This is why I don’t let Erin set my goals.

As a point of reference, for Erin’s birthday this year, Lindsey gave Erin two bags of dirt.

Lauren
For Valentines (or because she was cleaning out her closet in early February), Hoadus gave me some golf balls and other golf paraphernalia that made her think of me. A lot of people may think it’s awkward to get a Valentine’s present from their sister-in-law, but hey, free golf balls.

Kiersten
Kiersten gave me the Donut.

You can’t put a price tag on that (because selling your offspring is illegal), but during his brief lifetime the Donut has provided me (and all the people within his small, but expanding, sphere of influence) with a lot of really funny memories.

Matt
Even though Matt’s still just a teenager, and even though Matt doesn’t have a job (yet), Matt gave me a wii.


"How?" you say. Let me explain:

You see, Matt convinced his parents to get him a wii for earning his Eagle Scout award. Actually, Matt pulled off convincing his parents to give him a wii for earning his Eagle Scout award three years (and counting) before he ever earned his Eagle Scout award, thus enabling me to play his wii before we ever moved to California.

One day, Matt may actually earn his Eagle Scout award. By then I’m hoping he’ll have a new video game system so he’ll give his old wii to me for keeps.


Conclusion
Because my in-laws love me so much, I have decided to give them something in return. Every weekday during the month of April, I will give to them a Joseph post on this blog.

If I don’t actually reach this goal (I’m giving myself about a 1 in 7 chance of making it), then consider that previous line to be my April Fool’s Day joke.

Also, because this post has gone much too long without a picture of Joseph:




Addendum:
Nancy and Sam, if you’re wondering why you didn’t get a mention in this post, we’re wondering where the pictures of the ring are. Erin says she has no reason to believe that things are official until we have pictures of Nancy’s left hand.

Birthday Swing

Todd got me this for my birthday:

(We used the timer for this picture. We are amazed that we are all looking at the camera and smiling.)

Porch swings have been an important part of me and Todd's relationship. We first started dating during the summer after first year of law school, and I was living at home at the time. We would go to my parent's house to "work," but ended up spending hours and hours on the porch swing, talking and getting to know each other. Even though we got engaged and married *very* quickly, I feel like we really did get to know each other well because we spent so much time together not working, sitting on the porch swing.

It was also on the porch swing that we first told each other we loved each other, and where Todd proposed. So, I am thrilled about having a porch swing in our new home. We've already enjoyed the nice weather out swinging with Joseph, watching him play with other toys out there, and blowing bubbles.

And I said, What about Breakfast with Mommy?

To celebrate Valentine's Day, we went out to breakfast at a little crepe place that just opened up down the street from us.

Joseph really liked saying "crepe! crepe!" over and over again, so we tried to video it.

Joseph doesn't respond when he's asked to perform on command--especially when we ask him to re-perform something he had just done. Here's what happens when we try to get him to say "crepe! crepe!":

Why I like this video:

• (0:01) "What are you eating?" "mmmmmm"
• (0:09) The one time he says "crepe," (0:09) he pronounces it more like a French speaker than either of his parents ever do.
• (0:25) At the end of the video, he notices some strangers walking by and says "hi!"

Here's another video of that same morning. I like this video, because in addition to not saying "crepe! crepe!" over and over again, he just gets a great, amused look on his face as he rocks back and forth on the chair, and then tries to get more strangers to make eye contact with him so he can make them laugh.

March Madness

This post is going to be quick, because I have to write it during time outs and commercial breaks.

We've only got a few minutes left during the Utah State game, and the Aggies have taken their first lead of the game.

Keegan and Linds this is for you:

They'd better win this one, because with his Cougars out of it, Joseph is now pulling hard for the Aggies.

The Happiest Place ... And The Unhappiest Place

Todd and his mom (a.k.a. Nana) shared their birthday at the end of February (the day after I finished the Bar), so we decided to head up to Disneyland to celebrate and introduce Joseph to the place. Todd and I haven't been since we were kids, and it was really fun. It's a lot more compact than I expected, but that was nice because it was quick to get from place to place.

Joseph wasn't a fan of waiting in line for our tickets (or waiting in line for anything else), so we let him run around the entrance area for a bit and he loved it.

Joseph doesn't really know many Disney characters yet. He knows Nemo, of course, and he also knows Minnie because we got a Minnie toy in a cereal box a few weeks before going and made sure to teach him who she was. So I was happy that about as soon as we entered the park, he saw Minnie in the distance and got really excited yelling "Minnie! Minnie! Minnie!" Unfortunately, Todd and the camera were not with us at that point and we didn't get a picture.

We decided to start off by riding the train because Joseph loves trains, and he really liked it. He didn't want to get off. Here he is waiting and then riding.

Then we had to do "Small World," of course, even though I never really liked that ride. It was one of Joseph's favorites.

I know I'm making a really weird face in this picture, but Joseph is cute, so I'm sacrificing my dignity and posting it anyway.

Next up was the "Finding Nemo" submarine ride (which, when we were kids, was just some random submarine with mermaids and stuff). So, as excited as we were to go on a ride where he knew the characters ... it totally scared him. So much for that.

But here we are before the terror:

Then we went on "Autopia." I think he was still a little young to enjoy this because, though Todd put him in the driver's seat, he wasn't really getting the whole driving thing.

Following that, we went on Buzz Lightyear, the Jungle Cruise (which he enjoyed), and Pirates of the Caribbean (which he also enjoyed). Here are some family pics and pictures of the birthday boy and girl (and Joseph) near Pirates.

He also HIGHLY enjoyed the parking lot, storm drains, rocks and sticks on the ground, stairs, and a dead bee.

Here he is with the bee:





And stairs:

By that time, Joseph was getting a little worn out, so Nana and Brent took him home and Todd and I stayed to go on the grown-up rides. Thanks to FastPass, we were able to go on all of the big rides, and then we also went on most of the little kid rides that we hadn't gone to with Joseph because we wanted to see if they were what we remembered.

All in all, we are major Disneyland fans and are excited to take Joseph back (especially as he gets older). It's very clean and well-maintained and really, we felt like kids again.

The day after our day in the Happiest Place on Earth, Todd and I spent some time in the Unhappiest Place on Earth: the Emergency Room. To spare the details, Todd is fine, but for a while they suspected he had appendicitus. We had to wait for about 8 hours in the emergency room for them to come to the conclusion that he didn't. But he was still looking so cute: