<p>Thanks for the story! :)</p>
<p>Childbirth without drugs is like a day without sunshine...well, it's more like a day of nuclear winter. And yet, that was not enough to keep me from having one more child. What did it for me was having my 15-month old...</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Squeeze through the gate and wander down to the busy street at the end of our driveway. </p></li>
<li><p>Climb a 6-ft fence to the other side of a creek. </p></li>
<li><p>Suck gasoline from a contractor's gas can.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Where was I while my adorable 15-month old was doing all of this? Probably up to my elbows in Playdough with the 3-year old, or getting a cup of coffee for the sixth time that day, or standing 10 feet away. This kid was lightening fast, and as finely tuned as my baby radar was, he got away from me a couple of times. </p>
<p>He was Superman's evil spawn. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound! Look, out in traffic -- it's a bird, it's a plane! No, it's the Sluggs' toddler -- again! </p>
<p>Yes, it was EvilSuperBaby, strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal children. EvilSuperBaby, who could change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as SluggJr, mild-mannered toddler in a suburban ranch house, fought a never-ending battle to keep his parents from ever experiencing another good night's sleep. ;)</p>
<p>Sluggbug - A Klingon Changling perhaps? :eek: It is eerie that it's always the second child....:)</p>
<p>"Does she have a face?"--Love it!</p>
<p>I remember when my H brought my oldest (then almost four years old) to visit his new born brother at the hospital. I said something like, ". . . and we're going to bring the baby home with us tomorrow to live with us." And my son looks at me and says "What baby?"</p>
<p>Denial is so powerful mstee!</p>
<p>When my DD was 5 and her brother was one, she remarked as we were kissing her goodnight one night:</p>
<p>"Mom, Dad? Do you remember when our family was just us three?"</p>
<p>"Yes, sweetie, we do..."</p>
<p>"That was a much better life for me."</p>
<p>
[quote]
"That was a much better life for me."
[/quote]
Priceless, SBmom.</p>
<p>O.K. Who let the Marmots out? :eek:</p>
<p>Big Rodents Overrun Washington Seniors
May 30 4:13 PM US/Eastern
Email this story </p>
<p>PROSSER, Wash.</p>
<p>"The marmots are coming, the marmots are coming." Seniors living in Wine Country Villa probably wish they had gotten such a warning. </p>
<p>Residents say the oversized rodents are swarming through the 75-unit development of manufactured homes near the airport of this Eastern Washington town, burrowing under homes, fouling front porches with their droppings and _ according to some unconfirmed accounts _ attacking people. </p>
<p>Many species of marmots, including some known as woodchucks and groundhogs, are found across North America. They are closely related to ground squirrels and are among the largest of rodents, some reaching 30 pounds. </p>
<p>"Can you imagine what they'd do to cats?" asked Dick Bain, 78, a Wine Country resident who dispatched two of the animals with a shovel Friday. </p>
<p>Bain said he doesn't like killing animals but had to act after finding two marmots beneath a stack of carpentry wood next to his house. </p>
<p>"My neighbor got tackled (by marmots) two years ago and got chewed up pretty bad," Bain told the Yakima Herald-Republic. </p>
<p>The account could not be verified by the newspaper. Bain would not identify the man, saying his neighbor was embarrassed. </p>
<p>Also unconfirmed was an account that a resident got badly bitten after reaching into a water tank to remove a marmot that only appeared to be dead. </p>
<p>Ray Borgens, 81, said marmots leave unsavory calling cards in his carport, burrow under his house and once scooted up a ladder he left leaning against the roof. </p>
<p>"They were snooping around the air ducts up there," Borgens said. </p>
<p>Concerned about the droppings, which Bain said often are tracked indoors "even though you think you've cleaned it off," residents say officials in the Benton-Franklin Health Department have told them there's nothing the agency can do because the animals pose no public health risk, including the spread of infectious disease. </p>
<p>Police add that town ordinances prohibit residents from shooting the critters. </p>
<p>Officials in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife say residents likely will have to pay if they want to eradicate the infestation, and then only after clearing some bureaucratic hurdles. First, they must file a complaint with the agency's Yakima office, which then may refer them to a certified exterminator. </p>
<p>"These are not free services," agency spokeswoman Madonna Luers said. "We do not have the staff to go out there and deal with these situations." </p>
<p>To make the area less attractive to marmots, she advised securing garbage cans and other potential sources of food or nesting material. </p>
<p>She also advised trying to avoid marmot confrontations. </p>
<p>"They've probably become pretty accustomed to people," Luers said, "and it's not an animal you want to tangle with." </p>
<hr>
<p>Information from: Yakima Herald-Republic, <a href="http://www.yakima-herald.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.yakima-herald.com</a></p>
<p>I always try to avoid marmot confrontations.</p>
<p>BHappyMom - we HAVE missed you.</p>
<p>No wonder jmson hasn't hear back on all of his transfer apps. The marmots are no longer on the job.</p>
<p>Round up the little buggers!!!!</p>
<p>Feed them Hurricanes in honor of Jmson at Tulane.</p>
<p>And then send them off to the errant organizations...</p>
<p>Perhaps the Hurricanes would be put to better use offered to the Adcoms. Put them in an expansive frame of mind. ;)</p>
<p>Eww. I bet they smell a bit like ferrets.</p>
<p>Cute, maybe, but stinky. And pesky...</p>
<p>Run awaaaayyyy</p>
<p>Brave Sir Robin. Gotta love Monty Python.</p>
<p>Im not dead yet!</p>
<p>I'm feeling much bettah. Really, I am!</p>
<p>It's just a flesh wound!</p>
<p>The marmots....they've retired to wine country! In fact, I haven't seen the hedge hogs around here for awhile. I used to catch them leaping around in the moonlight. sigh. Maybe they emigrated and are in wine country too. Things change. Nothing stays the same.</p>
<p>she turned me into a newt!</p>
<p>Who are you, good sir, who are so wise in the ways of science?</p>
<p>(We could easily turn this into the Holy Grail Call-and-Response Thread, perhaps we'd best just take a little of the peril and not go to Camelot, shall we?)</p>
<p>Especially if we don't want any cows flung over the parapets at us.</p>