Even though Alma took her first couple steps a few months back she hasn’t been interested in walking too much - by herself, anyway. But she’s been having more opportunities to do so lately. Two days ago, as I set her down on the floor to play, she stood - much like she normally does - but this time, instead of slowly getting down on the floor to crawl, she took about 10 steps toward Steve and then tripped over his honkin’ steel-toed shoe. And then she actually did this several times throughout the evening. She is finally walking. Hurray!
She’ll be 12 months old in a couple of weeks so I was getting worried that we had hindered her ability to walk by our 3+ month long floor debacle of 2009 where she didn’t have any room to get down and play and crawl and walk. During those 3 months she had to either be held by one of us, sitting in her highchair or sitting in her exersaucer. Both Hannah and Isabella took their first steps at 8 months and were regularly walking by 9 months. Alma took her first steps at 9 months and now is starting to walk at 11 months. Yay for Alma! Now just anxiously awaiting her hair to grow in.
Edited to add: Here’s a video of Alma taking a few steps today. It isn’t quite like she did the other night. But steps nonetheless.
FYI: Isabella, seen here on her 3rd birthday this past November, informed me on the way to an appointment yesterday that she no longer wishes to be called Bella, Bops, Boppers, Izzy and/or any combination/interpretation thereof. She said she likes the name Isabella and that is what she wants to be called. ‘Nuff said.
Recently Steve went a very long time without a haircut. In fact, I think it was the longest he has ever gone without one in the last 7 years! I’ve never seen his hair quite so long. It had to have been at least 3 inches from his head to the end of his hair! And when he got it wet the other day for his haircut I couldn’t believe how curly it was. I’ve never, ever seen it curly like that before - probably because he doesn’t usually wear it curly. When he gets out of the shower he brushes the curls away (and it’s usually pretty short, too). Well, when I saw those handsome curls as he wet his hair for the cut I couldn’t resist taking a picture. Isn’t he handsome?
Yeah, go ahead, wipe away the drool, ladies. I know, I know, you are sad he’s not your husband. He’s all mine. All 6 foot 2.5 inches (well, the half of an inch is due to the length of his hair )! His beard is also pretty full - perhaps the fullest it has ever been, too. Usually the two go hand-in-hand; longer hair = longer beard. When the hair on his head gets a trim then usually the beard on his face does, too, or else it looks out of place.
So, now it is my mission to keep those handsome locks of curl around by encouraging him to keep his hair a little longer. I bought some gel for him to use since the reason he usually keeps it short is because it gets all “puffy” and he doesn’t care for that style. But either way, he is obviously very handsome. Just look at him!
Three weeks ago today - one week before Christmas - I was getting ready to run some errands with the girls. I stood on the porch and let the girls go to the van in the driveway. I was trying to get the doors to open with the fob but it wouldn’t work. I was getting frustrated and then Hannah Grace said “But, Mom, you left your door open.” So then I thought maybe my battery was dead because the door was accidentally left open but then I realized that of course I didn’t leave it open. Of all people, I am probably one of the most paranoid about making sure the car (and house) is locked all the time. I usually push the lock button 3 times - even though with each one I hear the horn honk indicating it is locked and the manufactured alarm system is on to help prevent theft.
So, I head down the stairs and look in the car to see if anything is missing - assuming maybe someone tried to break into it. Nothing was missing that I could tell. So I lean in over the driver’s seat to try and start the car to see if it will even start and what do I find? Well, let me show you what I found.
That’s right, folks, I found that there wasn’t a key hole anymore. I just saw a fairly large opening and some wires. Then I walked around the car and saw this:
The would-be thief pried the metal up around the lock, popped it out and entered our personal property in our own driveway to try and steal our van (plus all the car seats, strollers, baby carriers, etc). Yes, you read that right - they weren’t trying to steal from the van - they were trying to steal the van. IDIOTS!
They did a whopping $2,600 worth of damage. Luckily they weren’t very successful. The insurance adjuster that inspected the damage told Steve that it was probably an amateur and that if it was a gang initiation then someone was probably lying in a alley somewhere. They really messed up the back lift gate (between the inside plastic and outside metal) and it had to be replaced completely.
Apparently, with the built-in anti-theft system (horn honking alarm and whatnot) there is some sort of a kill-switch type of thing that more than likely was activated when they ripped the ignition out. So they probably couldn’t get the car to start because of that reason. After the van was fixed the body shop couldn’t get the key to work and that is because of this anti-theft system. The keys and van had to be sent to the dealer to get the microchip in the key to be reset back to this particular van.
So, because of some idiot’s need to make poor choices and try to steal what we have worked very hard for we are out the $500 deductible, we are out the 3 weeks we went without a car that could fit the whole family and a sense of security, among other things. However, we are very blessed that we still have the van otherwise we couldn’t afford another one. We are blessed that no one was hurt or otherwise injured in any sort of encounter with the would-be thief. We are blessed we have a built-in manufacturer’s anti-theft system. We are blessed that we don’t have to replace all the girls’ car seats, strollers and my baby carriers. We are blessed for great people who have helped us out in our time of need with rides to church and appointments, and people who have brought things by because they knew we couldn’t get out so easily. The people who helped us get a security camera system to deter and/or catch any future would-be thieves. We are very blessed. Thanks to all who have helped us out! It’s nice having our van back as of tonight!!
~Emily
p.s. The title of this post is what the guy at the car shop said to Steve when he called them to tell them someone tried to steal the car. He said to me “No offense, but a minivan? Who would want to steal a minivan?” We decided some one who was needing it to do another thefty job - perhaps rob a house?
Okay, so it hit - the biggest snow storm of the year. Well, maybe that’s not fair since it is only the 7th day of the year so we’ll say of the winter season, instead. Yes, that’s right, you read that right. It hit - the biggest snow storm of the season. Many places closed down yesterday, perhaps a little prematurely, to avoid dealing with such an awful storm. Everyone, that is, except the Memphis City School System. County schools, preschools, day cares, churches, universities, etc - they all closed down (or had delayed openings) due to such an awful storm coming to town that was suppose to hit right during rush hour. And here, my friends, is a picture of the aftermath of the entire storm in all its glory.
Yes, you see that correctly. It is indeed about 1/16th of an inch of snow that really isn’t sticking to much of anything. This is what I consider a ‘dry snow’ as opposed to a ‘wet snow.’ A wet snow is good for snowballs, forts, snowmen, etc., A dry snow is just like powder and is good for nothing. (Although skier folks might see it differently than I do. Yes, I’m from Utah where the Winter Olympics were held in 2002 - even though I moved out of state the month before the Olympics. I grew up minutes from the fabulous mountains and yes, once again, you read that right - I am not a snow skier (or any skier for that matter )).
Okay, okay, so in defense of the weatherfolks - no one on the Earth really KNOWS exactly how the weather is going to turn out in any given circumstance. They can only predict what they think might happen based on their fancy information and knowledge from the past. So, now we have a very small “skiff” of snow that is good for nothing and the girls are very sad they can’t even have fun playing in it. And for the record, even though they are in the Memphis City School System and schools were open I did not take them to school today because I don’t have a car to take them to school in the first place so they’ve missed their entire first week back from winter break. But that’s a story for another post. Please enjoy the picture of our first, (maybe only?), snow storm of the season.
The temperature outside had been in the mid to low 20’s and for some reason we couldn’t get the inside temperature above 62. It was freezing in here (if you like to keep your house cold, keep your opinions to yourself!). Well, I decided to check the filter. I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference, but it did! Especially because there was a Rite-Aid bag stuck over 3/4’s of the filter. Apparently the vent that is right by the furnace sucked in a plastic bag when the cover was off during the Great Wood Floor Debacle of Aught-Nine. The temperature shot up by 6º in 20 minutes after I took the plastic off. The good news is that while part of the filter is dirty, there’s a nice, big section in pristine condition!
The moral of the story is to check your filter for dirt, small mammals, plastic bags, children and existence.
Well, for Christmas we got The Beatles Rock Band for the Wii (to be fair, I purchased it without Emily’s knowledge…sorry, Em!) and the girls have taken a liking to it. If you’re not familiar with the Rock Band franchise, it’s a game where people can sing, play guitar, bass, and drums. We have one guitar, drums, and a microphone so three of us can play at the same time. Below is a video of us playing along to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
*Names may have been changed to protect the guilty. .
“I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello. Hello, hello. I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.” ~The Beatles
Once upon a time there was a young girl. She loved talking to her friends on the phone. She begged and begged and begged and begged and begged her parents to let her have a phone in her room. It would be easy, she thought, as there was already a phone jack in there! She begged and begged and begged some more. Finally there were some conditions set forth involving her room remaining clean for a certain period of time before she could think about getting a phone in her room. I’m sure she didn’t quite make the terms of the verbal contract but at some point, quite a time - perhaps years - later she was able to purchase a phone with her own money to keep in her room. Even one of her siblings or two would answer the phone “Emma Lee’s* Answering Service” when it rang during her high school years. For some unknown reason she loved talking on the phone. It was just inherent in her nature.
As she grew up and moved away from home she would still talk to her family on the phone once or twice (if not more) times a week. Over the next several years many changes occurred in her life. She got married and had three beautiful children with whom she had the opportunity to stay at home with the entire day - all week long. As much as she loved her children it was hard to hold normal, adult conversations with them. Sure, she was a good talker (boy, did she talk a lot!) and would talk to her children like they were adults - but they didn’t always talk back like adults. And besides, she just had to call and tell her mom all the cute things they were doing. And then one day they were able to have unlimited, cheap (as in the cost of local service) long-distance with their phone service. With all these things combined, it proved to be an awesome opportunity (or perhaps her downfall?) of making many calls, multiple times a day to family and friends - mainly her mom. Now, because of these multiple calls several times a day to her mother it became apparent that her two eldest children have this same inherent need to call family multiple times a day. Because of all these phone calls being made during the day the third and youngest child’s first words are “Buh-Bye.” She even thinks the phone is called a “Buh-Bye.”
Please enjoy this short video of Alma, her first words and her apparent description of what we call a phone (and please ignore me!)
Why do babies make incredibly humorous faces when they are given a new food to taste (say, green beans, spinach, brown rice combined) and why do they refuse to eat it, swat their hands at it, spit it out, etc? You would think they were just given a bowl full of cockroaches to eat. But how come when crawling on the floor at church you find the baby eating something and she puts up a fight and cries when you try to pry it out of her mouth and hands and that delicious thing she was eating turns out to be body parts of a cockroach? Um, yeah, I think I threw up a little in my mouth, too.
You are welcome for the image that is now in your mind. Carry on.
Hurray!
Um, yeah, I think I threw up a little in my mouth, too.