Misc. Updates

I realize there a few outstanding issues worth updating. First, the clock (nicknamed "Bug" for some reason by the children.) Bug has totally been worth the cost. There was one morning -- I think it was only the 2nd day we had it -- that the twins decided to ignore Bug and got up when they felt like it. We had a quick, but serious and semi-sleep deprived talk with them about how this was not OK.

Somehow -- without inventing anything or being even mildly threatening -- this was enough to work. Because other than that, they have obeyed Bug's color commands like a dream. They are so excited to bust into our room to tell us that Bug has turned green, it's even cute. It will be even cuter as we secretly advance the time Bug turns green to slightly later and later times. (On the parental scale of deception, we figure this is fairly low.)

So the twins' sleep situation has been at least temporarily resolved. This brings us to the other dependents in the family: the chickens. While I was away for a few days for a work trip, KLC decided to pull the trigger on getting two more chickens. Yes, we are now up to four. (For those keeping track, the old ones are Buffy and E.B. The new ones -- once again named by the children -- are Fluffy and Mingo, which is short for Flamingo. Again, this is our fault for letting the children pick the names for anything beyond their stuffed animals.)

All is now well on the chicken front, but the doubling of the population did bring some new issues. For one, we needed to expand the footprint of the accessible outdoor area for the chickens. This involved rotating the coop by about 45 degrees and going to my worst nightmare favorite store, Home Depot, for even more "poultry mesh," aka, chicken wire. All of the "ladies" seem to be getting along now, so I think we once again have a happy hen home.

Finally, there's Zeek. The cat has seemingly made a full recovery from his uber-expensive surgery. From here on out, however, Zeek will be an exclusively indoor cat. While this doesn't always sit well with him, it's the only way we can ensure he doesn't do something similarly painful (for him and us) again. This does keep him safe and sound, but he does protest -- wait for it -- sometimes at 4am. So between the twins, chickens and cat, we plan on getting a solid night's sleep some time later in the decade. Or maybe the next one.