Kate here. We've had a bit of nasty weather in these parts, as you may have heard on the news. Tornadoes passed quite near Nashville and did a fair amount of damage in some outlying suburbs, but thankfully, we didn't find ourselves in their path of destruction. Anne, Grandma Carol, Cora, Ollie and I were actually at the mall, of all places, completely oblivious of the tornado warning. We were on the upper level, en route to a store, when I happened to look down and see a man with a walkie-talkie motioning to us. He was some kind of mall security person, and was busily herding all the shoppers into an enclave of sorts under a large stairway and away from the massive skylit ceiling nearby. So there we went and there we sat, for about ten minutes or so, crammed in with a bunch of strangers on cell phones. Cora was pretty freaked out (I was too, but I had to pretend that I wasn't), but seemed to understand that we were in a safe place. Then, the walkie-talkie man said everything was clear and let us go. So what did we do? We kept shopping!
On a side note, I took Cora to an art class today at a local botanical garden and overheard a woman talking with the art teacher about the tornadoes. She actually said, "I mean, I keep thinking they'll find a way to control the weather," as if it's unbelievable that they haven't already. That's the last thing we need -- George Bush deciding, God-like, who gets the tornadoes, the wild fires, the hurricanes. Hmmm...Katrina...maybe they've already figured it out...
I hit "send" this morning on the second of two manuscripts. Ahh...relief. I've been hoarding my words lately.
We're all passing around a springtime cold. Cora brought it home from school and it has slowly infested the house and our sinuses.
Our hermit crab Hermie has a new roommate--another hermit crab named Abigail. Abigail is the third in a procession of now-dead Hermie roommates: Clancy and Clancy Junior never survived more than a week.
Hello, Kate here. It's about time I added a few of my own words to the blog, especially because Brian is so busy with his own writing these days. Cora is home sick today. She woke up three times last night, congested and delirious, looking for tissues. This morning she put on her most pitiful sick-kid face, coughed a few times, and asked very sweetly if she could stay home from school today. Even though she was laying it on a bit heavy ("My throat hurts, my eyes are watering, I've got a tummyache..."), it was obvious that she really was sick, so we agreed to let her stay home. She got this look on her face, like she was trying to maintain her pitifulness despite being overjoyed to be allowed to miss school. I remember putting on that face myself as a kid...
We went to the park yesterday and enjoyed the warm weather. We've all been a little stressed so it was nice to get out.
Kate fell prey to one of Oliver's abiding interests this morning--shoe relocation. He likes to walk around the house with a shoe in his hand. The problem is that he manages to leave the shoe in an obscure spot that takes extreme searching to locate.
His other passion is toilets. Two mornings ago Cora used the bathroom and forgot to close the door behind her. A few minutes later, as I was preparing breakfast, I heard some splashing in the bathroom. I discovered Oliver playing happily at the toilet. He had dropped a shampoo bottle in the bowl and was stirring it in Cora's pee. When he saw me, he of course said "nuh nuh nuh."
Springtime is here and the kids have been playing outside. The Bradford pears are blooming and the daffodils are blooming. It's too early for mosquitoes, so it really is one of the nicest times of the year. G'ma Sally and Kate got the spring garden started and the radishes are already sprouting.
Here's a 30 second clip of Oliver walking.
There's also a clip from Ollie's first birthday. Enjoy!
Oliver has learned the meaning of the word "no" now, with amusing results. He likes to touch the computer power button, look up at me, and say "nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." Yesterday morning he went into the bathroom, unspooled the toilet paper, put it in the toilet and then tried to flush. When I came in--"nuh nuh nuh nuh." He went behind the chair to the power outlet yesterday--"nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." He's obviously watching and learning.
He's walking in bursts, usually from one "station" to another a few feet away.
Kate and I just finished watching the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" last night. Highly recommended grist for the mill.
The Grammys are on tonight, and I'm proud to say that Alison Krauss won Best Country Album against some heavy hitters. This is great news because Aunt Sarah wrote a song on the album. Congratulations Sarah!
We're staying at my parents' for at least a few days while we get some work done on the house. We figured it was time to move Oliver out of the bathroom into a proper room of his own. The only problem was that we knocked down the bedroom wall when we moved in to make a spacious master bedroom. Adios spacious master bedroom, hello old wall. The new wall is actually better than the old one because it is now a custom wall with a four foot opening right in the middle. That way the room shouldn't feel too small and during the day we can keep the doors open. The wall is framed out already and it looks really good. Meanwhile, we've had a wonderful time and have soaked up the feeling of familial "village" life.
Cora is also getting a new floor, toilet, and sink in her bathroom. She's very excited of course, having acquired a taste for the finer things during her stay at the bed and breakfast last weekend.
We made it home safely last night and drove straight to G'ma and G'dad's for a Super Bowl viewing party. Cora refused to sleep on the way home from Asheville even though she was completely sleep deprived over the weekend. I don't know what she thinks she'll miss. I guess it will be a few years before she realizes that her parents are completely boring and not good for much except food, shelter and transportation.
I had been looking forward to the drive to Asheville as we had not been on a road trip with all four of us in the same car. About twenty minutes into the trip I realized I had been romanticizing things. Asheville was still over five hours away and two young children were strapped down just three feet behind my ears. I realized on this trip that minivans are designed to keep your children as far away from you as possible while driving.
Kate and I both pinched ourselves that we are now the parents carting the kids around. We have our own memories of family road trips--both dads always finding the old staticky radio stations that barely came in at all, John managing to always find a polka station somewhere in Pennsylvania. As we left I had a strong memory of my Dad stopping at the gas station on our way out on road trips and picking up a cup of coffee for the road. As he pulled out of the parking lot he would hold his coffee in his right hand, steer with the left, pull into traffic and start exploring the lid with his lips, testing the temperature in a combination blow-sip-slurp. I never knew how he did all those things at once. I just thought he liked coffee (and never understood that either). But now I understand the valuable self-medication aspects of coffee--it acts as some sort of psychic insulation from other stimuli. Car sleep was also a fond memory for both of us. We shared our fond view of sleep with Cora but she's not buying.
Asheville itself is a beautiful city nestled in the North Carolina mountains, and Anne and Nathan have a sweet little place just a few minutes from the city and just off the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Nathan's parents were there for the weekend and we all had a great time hanging out.
Cora had two sleepovers with G'ma Carol at a bed and breakfast. They had wonderful girl time together. The proprietor made Cora a special order of Belgian waffles(Cora called them "bargain waffles") on Sunday morning.
Oliver took about twelve steps at once on Sunday. He looks like he's walking over hot coals or a very cold floor.
We are in Asheville for the weekend visiting Anne and Nathan. The trip took about six hours and went pretty smoothly.
Last night Oliver took his first steps. Two shaky staggering steps and then he hit the floor. But it's a start!
Things have been relatively quiet around here....Cora and Oliver both weathered their sicknesses pretty well without taking nosedives.
We've had a stack of shingles in our yard for two weeks now, waiting for the roofers to come give us a new roof. They dropped off the shingles and have not lined up a time to actually use them. The tarps are holding up well so far, but I imagine there's only so much sun, wind, and buckets of rain that tarps and duct tape can withstand. Since our house is at the top of the "T" in a T-intersection, our yard is highly visible to all the cars that stop there. Word must have spread in the "shingling" workers pool that our house had a large amount of shingles sitting in the yard with no one to use them. A guy approached Kate last week and offered to shingle the roof for cheap. This morning as I left our driveway a truck pulled out of another driveway nearby. He backed out and blocked the road and gestured for me to roll down the window. I did, and he pointed to our front yard.
"Do you have someone to put on those shingles?"
I assured him that we did. It feels like we're being staked out by opportunistic shady shinglers.
As soon as I got to work I called our supposed roofing company. Evidently our work order got lost in the shuffle. So hopefully the roof will soon be out of our yard and on the roof.
We just finished an exciting week. Cora went to the dentist on Wednesday--her third checkup--and discovered that she has big teeth underneath the baby teeth in her lower jaw. She is very excited about them and is telling everyone that her big teeth are pushing on the baby teeth. It will probably be a while before they start getting loose, but it's still a reminder that her body is only getting bigger and older.
Another reminder is her new bed, which she is sleeping in tonight for the first time. She inherited it from Anne, who won't have room for it in Asheville. It's a big girl bed, big enough for adults to sleep in. She has a new set of Pooh sheets that match her pajamas and she's snuggled in for the night. Quite a big coming of age week for a four year old.
We helped Anne pack the moving van today and she's heading to Asheville tomorrow for the next chapter in her life. It will really sink in soon that she's not just down the road, but for now it doesn't feel real yet.
This morning as Cora was brushing her teeth for school she turned to me with an excited expression. She gets her most inspiration for deep thoughts when we are on a deadline. She said, "Did you know, plants breathe out the air that we need to live. And we breathe out the hydrogen peroxide that the plants need! Isn't that neat!"
Oliver stood up on his own for about ten seconds on Tuesday. He was playing by the couch and picked up a toy with both hands. He was so absorbed looking at it that he must have forgotten he couldn't stand yet. Ten seconds up, then.....plop on the diaper bottom. We'll miss the crab crawl. We'll also miss the butt swivel, when he sits on the floor and spins around with his legs like a gunners turret, surveying the 360 degree landscape.
At this point--almost one year old already!--we are starting to discern some of Oliver's passions. Food and music are the two frontrunners. He grunts and lunges whenever we eat apples, bananas, or drink water. Gimme some! Cora got a bucket of instruments for Christmas, mostly percussive ones like a hand drum, triangle, wooden strikers, clacker thingies, a penny whistle, a tambourine, and some other stuff to create racket with. On three separate occasions now Oliver has crawled over to the music box, dumped everything out in a pile, picked out the appropriate instruments and begun to play them. The first time he chose the drum and the matching drumstick. Then the triangle and the matching striker. Then the wood strikers. He gets completely absorbed.
Then when we were at G'ma and G'dad's and they were playing music at New Years he couldn't get enough of the music they were playing. He listened contentedly for a while and then crawled up to the instruments, intent on playing them himself. His technique is quite good already; he fans his fingers in a gentle strumming motion. There is obviously a strong genetic pull toward music in his blood, but it's amazing to see him approach instruments as if he's played them before. (Insert parental comments here--He's a genius!)
Now that the temperature has dropped around here we have some tiny furry friends trying to share the house with us. We have been finding mouse droppings in various areas over tha last few weeks, and in the beginning the warfare was moderate--put all the food in containers, wipe the counters with bleach, make sure there are no water sources, etc. I read on the Internet that mice abhor peppermint oil and will stay away if you put some on cotton balls and drop it where you think they are coming in the house. It sounded like a humane enough idea, so I tried it. Also installed a sonic deterrent in the kitchen.
The next day, more poops, right on the countertop under the sonic deterrent. The house has a lovely smell of peppermint to mask the unsightly countertop turds. So we ramped it up a bit and got some catch and release traps, still trying to respect these creatures' right to life. No luck after several days.
The turning point came one night after dinner. We usually put our dishes on the counter, put the kids to bed, and then clean up afterwards. So a few nights ago I put Cora to bed and headed back into the kitchen to do the dishes. As I'm standing at the counter a mouse ran right across a plate and jumped behind the refrigerator. That was the last straw. I wanted that sucker dead. His right to life ended when he licked my dinner plate. He poked his nose out from under the fridge a few times to see if we were still there, so I turned on all the lights to keep him there. At this point it became clear to me that mice must pass on two golden rules to their young:
1. If you smell peanut butter, don't eat it. It's a trap.
2. Never let the humans see you in their own house. Then they will REALLY try to kill you.
I could tell this mouse knew he had violated the second sacred rule and would shortly be dead. Happy to oblige, I went to Lowe's for what the salesman called the "mouse electric chair" and some glue traps. I surrounded the fridge in a ring of death, went into the living room, turned on a movie with Kate, and waited. Not three minutes later we heard a "squeak, squeak!" and found the varmint stuck fast to the glue board. Kate wanted to peel him off the board and set him free. I assured her that wouldn't be feasible. If he had only gone into the electric chair it would have been so much easier. But we had to throw him in a trash bag and take him to a dumpster down the road, to asphyxiate slowly or freeze in the night. I felt bad for a little while--it doesn't feel right to extinguish life--but sure felt good knowing there was one less mouse around. I put a glue board behind our entertainment center and another beside the fridge and we went to bed.
The next morning we were happy to find clean countertops and no sign of mice anywhere. We made breakfast as usual, Cora ran around while Oliver played in the living room. Kate and I ducked our heads in occasionally to check on him and he was always playing contentedly with some toys or pulling up on the bookshelf. I had just checked on Oliver not even two minutes before when Kate looked into the living room and didn't see him. She went in to find him and I heard an "Oh no! Brian, come here!" I ran in to find Kate pulling Oliver out from behind the entertainment center, his hand glued to the mouse board. Turns out there's just enough room for a baby to get back there. He's an observant little guy--never been back there before, but then again there's never been a glue board to play with. Obviously the mouse wasn't the only curious critter in the house. Luckily it was non-toxic glue, we pulled Oliver out of it, and he's still in one piece. And we haven't seen any mouse poops since then.
On the way to school this morning Cora said,
"Dad, it would take one hundred days to drive to the sun."
"Really? How would you get there? That's a long way."
"They should put some gravity in outer space and then we could put gas stations there. I'd bring a biiiiiig bottle of glue and we'd glue them down."
Yikes! It's been a slack November on the blogging end of things. Not that things have been dull around here; on the contrary, we've just been trying to keep up with ourselves. We went to Kentucky for a mountain retreat a few weeks ago and had a grand time. Winter is slowly encroaching here and we're seeing colder days and nights. The full moon seemed to disrupt the emotional equilibrium of at least half of Nashville last week, and we slogged through several days of emotional sludge. But the experience did provide some valuable insights and all has been much better since then.
Cora had her first real Halloween tonight. Last year in the apartments we went to our upstairs neighbor and got a packet of Goldfish. Maybe that was two years ago...at any rate, one packet of Goldfish was her cumulative lifetime Halloween haul so far.
This year there are too many friends at school who know what Halloween is all about--loads of candy. So lest Cora feel betrayed when she goes to school in the morning (and because it's fun), we hit the neigborhood for some real trick or treating. She dressed herself in her Ladybug costume, discarding the color-coordinated red pants and shirt in favor of her own blue stripe shirt and flowered pants. We went to Anne's street and visited about fifteen houses in all, her pumpkin bucket sagging at the handles by the end of the night with the weight of her candy.
Oliver now has three words:
"Ma"=Mommy
"Da"=Daddy
"Buh"=Buh-bye now.
He's added "buh" to his waving, so we're pretty sure he knows what he's saying. Or he knows that he's imitating what we're saying.
He has enjoyed an explosion of freedom in the last two weeks after mastering the slithery crawl. He also shimmies on his butt with one leg straight out to the side. He cocks his left leg out straight, curls his right, then starts bouncing up and down, propelling himself forward. He developed this technique after constantly ramming his head into cabinets and couches when trying to get close to objects on the floor. The "dropping" game is also a new favorite. Oliver has learned that when he drops things off the high chair they disappear and then someone will pick them back up.
We got a chance to visit Cora's home away from home tonight as Abintra Montessori held an open house. Anne and Grandma Sally came with us to see what Cora does with all the time she spends away from home.
Oliver finally said it today; the word every mother longs to hear after she has faithfully nursed and nourished her young offspring and he has been saying "da-da" for a month already. We were in the car on the way to Cora's school for an open house. Oliver was hungry and lunging enthusiastically at Kate's chest as she sat between the two kids in the back seat. As he waved his arm in the direction of her torso Oliver said very clearly "maaa...Ma!" And he kept saying it the rest of the night, usually when Kate was around. He's also starting to wave at us--he does the wrist swivel wave like a dignitary on a parade float.
Oliver is in a pitiful state right now... he got his current round of shots at the doctor yesterday and his body is feverishly fighting off a volley of diluted but nasty bugs. He couldn't sleep last night and had trouble napping today too, so by 5:00pm tonight he was a woozy drunk, babbling incoherently in a half-cry, half-moan. And somehow he's still sweet. Not happy but sweet.
Cora got a full dose of boys tonight and couldn't be happier about it. Fog and Sarah had a party at their place and as luck would have it there was a five year old and and a six year old there. They all played hide and seek and streaked through the house, the boys taking turns either ostracizing or including Cora. One minute she was in the game, the next it's "Eww, girls! Get away!" "She's only four! We're five and six!" Of course I'm standing there feeling bad for her, forgetting that this is how the game of boys and girls is played, that cooties and rejection rituals are all just flirtation building blocks and certainly not taken seriously by the kids themselves. I was reminded of this when Cora sang all the way home in the car, making up lyrics to songs and opening the window to let the wind blow her hair. She was one happy kid.
Yesterday morning Cora looked at me and said, "I was born before, you know. Before this."
"Really? Tell me about it."
"I was born in Twenty-Six. Before, when I was God, the first wind was invented by invisible fans. The wind you feel comes from big fans that you can't see. I invented those."
Click on the "Aunt Sarah's Photo Album" link in the upper right of the page for some new pictures of the kids...mainly Ollie and his man-boobs.
Oliver pulled up into a standing position on the couch yesterday. He's still not crawling per se, but scuttles his body across the floor like a fat crab. His physical progress is what strikes me with him, while at this point in Cora's infancy it seemed I could already hear her brain pulsating eagerly in her skull. It was about this time that Cora started responding to words and saying "oof oof" when we asked her what a puppy says. Oliver, on the other hand, doesn't seem drawn to intellectual pursuits just yet. He is intent on the tactile world, moving his body around, sticking stuff in his mouth. He eats like a horse already; Cora didn't really start solid food until she was a year old. When we wave and say good-bye to Oliver he just looks at us blankly, then at our hands, then back to our faces, as if he's thinking "there they go again flailing their arms around." He doesn't seem to think about doing it himself. Maybe he's relieved he doesn't share our arm-flapping affliction.
This morning we were eating breakfast and Cora was dawdling a bit, not too interested in her food. I passed her a cup and said "Here you go, Bud." Her eyes lit up and she said "Can you be Elise?" I agreed and finished the rest of breakfast as Elise. It was amazing. I didn't change my voice or anything, just said "bud" at the end of every sentence.
"Have more eggs Bud."
Are you going to finish your cereal, Bud?"
The effect was magical. Food gone.
Cousin Elise--priceless. And missed by her little bud.
Oliver discovered the kitchen cabinet this morning. The silver knob caught his eye and he crawled over to examine it. As he pulled on the knob the door swung open, and as it did his weight shifted and he swayed to the side. He did this for a few minutes, swaying side to side, opening and closing the door, without realizing there was anything inside the cabinet. Then he changed his focus and I saw the lightbulb dawn over his head. Aha! There's stuff behind this door! A big bag of cayenne fish rub went right in the mouth. Luckily the bag stayed closed, but it was a sign of things to come. Time for cabinet locks!
It seems the developmental milestones are falling fast and furious right now. In the past two days Oliver has mastered the Art of Sitting Up From a Crawl. It's almost creepy how easy it looks already. Sometimes he is snooching across the floor, pauses, and then he glides into a sitting position as if someone picked him up by the shirt.
His second tooth broke through the gums last night, so he's got two on the bottom now. He's always running his tongue over his tooth (now teeth) and jutting his bottom jaw out to feel it on his top gums. He's a trip.
He's a little less super mellow now--starting to get into "where's Mommy?" at times. Aunt Sarah kept him for a few hours this week and he screamed the whole time.
Cora is doing great, happy to be back in school. She's got a major crush on a boy named Daniel. He's twelve. Too old. Probably as tall as Daddy.
Change is in the air here as Anne will be moving out in a week or two. She closed the deal on her new house this week. Her new house is exactly two-tenths of a mile away from us. I'm said to say we still can't walk there without circuitous backways due to the lack of sidewalks for pedestrians and sense for drivers. Her house is very cute. Three bedrooms too, which we covet. Oliver now sleeps in our bathroom. He's not old enough to know the difference yet, but one of these days he'll wonder how he drew the short straw and sleeps next to the toilet.
Cora and I had karate class tonight. She lined up some stuffed animals as her audience and we performed a variety of kicks and punches. She has been intrigued by it since we saw some demonstrations this summer. The picture is of Cora's best karate pose, showing off her muscles for the camera. I think next summer might be a tae kwon do summer.
Oliver's growing up now I guess....no more babies, just big rowdy kids after this. His first tooth popped through his bottom gums two mornings ago, and the second looks ready to push through as well. He's been drooling like a faucet for the last few weeks, so it was a relief to see he had a good reason to drool constantly. He's sitting up well too, but not so well that we don't surround him with pillows. Crawling is a commando-style belly crawl/lunge, often with one arm outstretched for a desired object. He remains humble despite these great accomplishments and seems to still appreciate the presence of his parents.
It's hard to believe we're over halfway through the week already. Last weekend was a whirlwind of fun and family as we flew into Philadelphia for my cousin Adam's wedding. It was a blast for many reasons--first of all, Cora is quite the traveller. She adores airplane travel, particularly the snacks. But the best part was seeing all the cousins on the Davis side get together for the first time (for us at least). We are now faced with the enviable task of having to figure out how to take enough vacations each year to see everyone. We may have to start mixing sides of the family to get it all in. But it's clear that a beach trip in the summer is a necessary tradition that needs to continue from when we were kids.
Sarah took some great photos of the trip. See them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cree/sets/721679/
Kate and the kids are in Maryland now on the last leg of their epic trip. From all reports they have had a grand time so far. Cora has been caving, fishing, horseback riding, kayaking, eating, and loads of other stuff to keep her engaged. It is scary to see what her idea of a "good day" is--nonstop activity from dawn til dusk.
Kate and the kids set sail for Baltimore bright and early this morning. Thankfully the plans for a true road trip (i.e. car) were changed to air travel (despite Kate's insistence that she would be fine in the car for ten hours with two squirming kids smearing the windows). We got up and out on time and I left them at the security checkpoint, waving and smiling as Kate walked through the metal detector with Oliver on one hip and Cora holding onto her sweater. Then the metal detector went off. I know at that moment even the security guards thought, "This poor woman. She'll kill us if we stop her. Wave and smile." They didn't hassle her too much, and once Kate got through security she could put Oliver in the backpack again.
They're in West Virginia now, safely ensconced at Pop-Pop and Grammy Rena's house. And so begins their 11-day adventure.
If you click on this strange white rectangle, it will take you to Aunt Sarah's Flickr page. Look to the left of the page for her "Sets" of pictures, including over 50 snapshots from Cora's birthday party.
I have changed the settings on the blog so you can comment without registering or leaving vital personal information. So comment if you like; we're glad you're here!
Sarah played a show with her band at The Family Wash in East Nashville Saturday night. I had a big week of bodywork and wasn't sure if I would make it through both sets of music. I brought along my buddy Lew from work, who had had a longer week than me. We were kind of pitiful on our way out to the show. Two young guys feeling old and complaining of low back pain.
And we stayed the whole time. I went to bed at 1:30am. We had a great time. That's the beauty of a good show in a good venue with good people and three full glasses of good locally brewed Yazoo beer on tap. It makes everything all right. All good.
We're back online after a hiatus of several weeks. Our dial-up connection crossed us for the last time--I was cut off twice in the middle of posting the account of Cora's birthday celebration, losing everything both times. As George W. Bush says, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice.....uhh, don't fool me again. Or something like that. At any rate, we now have a cable modem and I am reasonably confident that it will not boot me off in mid post.
This picture is one from the vault--Cora at around a year old with us out on the balcony at Cumberland Retreat Apartments. A lot has changed since then to be sure.
Kate made some big plans with the kids today. They're embarking on an 11-day trip up to West Virginia on July 20th to visit Grammy Stella and Pop-Pop. Not long after they get back we go to my cousin Adam's wedding, and then in August I'm going to a five day intensive retreat for orthopedic massage. We're taking advantage of summer vacation while it's here.
Cora's new favorite word is "eventually". She usually uses it correctly, but yesterday she walked outside and, with the confidence of a grizzled farmer, exclaimed "Shew! It is eventually hot out here!"
We're back in town and recovering nicely from our trip to California. We all had a fabulous time, and it's easy to see why so many people are willing to cram themselves on top of each other to live there. We saw glimpses of Las Vegas and Phoenix during layovers, and the prevailing impression was that of a splat of humans in the middle of a sun-parched desert. Southern California took all the good elements of a desert climate (low humidity being the main plus) and left out the searing heat and lack of any plant over six inches tall. Cora loved the palm trees and swore she would tell her teachers all about them when she got home.
Uncle Dan is in town now for Cora's birthday tomorrow, so the party continues. Cora is quite excited to be four years old. Fireworks started last night, so it looks like the Independence Day festivities are taken seriously in this neighborhood.
