Here are some pictures from Dylan's birthday.
When I was a kid, I really liked Transformers. I watched the cartoon show all the time. I always asked for Transformers for my birthday. I would dream about having a toy that I wanted, then when I woke up and realized that I in fact didn't have the toy, it just ruined the rest of my day.
Some of my favorite Transformers were the Constructicons. They were all robots that turned into heavy machinery like a bulldozer, a crane, a dump truck and other stuff. Here are some pictures of them.
I've been trying to load some video from the camcorder to the computer, but the two of them aren't communicating with each other. If I'm lucky, I'm able to get 20 seconds of video at a time. I was able to piece this together. Enjoy.
OK, it stopped working for some reason. I uploaded it again, so hopefully it will work now. If not, we'll just move on.
I don't watch the news very much. I mostly just watch Sports Center and call it good. I figure if something earth shattering is happening, they'll mention it between the scores or something. I think I'd just rather not watch the news after seeing some of these headlines in the past week:
Man kills Good Samaritans on freeway. - This happened in Dallas. I used to not stop to help people on the road because I know nothing about cars and could provide no help except to say "Woah, that's bad." Now I have this reason too.
Wife free after 67 days for killing husband - Well, I hope she learned her lesson.
Playground spontaneously burns - I knew those things could get hot in the sun, but that hot?
Millions of toys recalled - I hope they recall that annoying Elmo thing the kids have.
Broncos 17, 49ers 13 - Aww, man.
So, to recap: Your kids can't play with certain toys, but you can't take them to the park to get them away from their deadly toys because the playground could spontaneously combust. Getting to the park is not safe because who knows when someone is going to shoot at you, and if that person is a good aim they may spend just over two months in the clink. On the bright side of all this, the 49ers are 1-0 in morale victories so far.
Last year on Dylan's birthday, I posted a list of goals that I had for him. One of those goals was for him to start doing this:
Finally, last night he went #2 in the potty! (You can tell you're a parent of small children when most of your conversations involve your children's bowel movements.) He has been going #1 pretty well for a few weeks, but last night he finally took the big step. Woo hoo! I gave him a handful of Skittles instead of just the three he gets when he goes pee in the potty. I also gave him a play phone that we got a month ago as a bribery to get him to start going. He was pretty proud of himself. I'm glad that he's coming around.
Of course today I've had to change two poopy Pull-Ups and he stuck his phone in the sink and it stopped working until it dried out. But hey, he's taken one step in the right direction. There is hope that he will be potty trained before high school.
It looks like Montse has been bombarded by those meme things lately. She didn't pass this one on to us, but I thought it looked fun, and since there is absolutely nothing else going on I thought I'd give it a go. Here it is.
Eight Facts About Our Marriage
1. When we were engaged, we realized we didn't have a song yet. We were in the car, and we decided that the next song that came on the radio would be our song. Our song is Enter Sandman by Metallica. Rock and roll, baby!!! Woo hoo!!!
2. Sam's brothers and her cousin sang/played our song at the reception, which was in a church. The missionaries who happened to hear chastised them for it.
3. At our wedding, my family outnumbered Sam's 15 to 1.
4. After two days of marriage, we almost got an annulment because I found out that Sam is a Dallas Cowboys fan. (Ok, that's not entirely true.)
5. We went on our honeymoon to glorious Reno Nevada. We didn't have a car. Do you know what there is to do in Reno if you don’t drink, don't gamble, and don't have a car? Not a whole lot. For some reason we ended up moving nearby four years later.
6. My cousin decorated our car for our reception in Star Valley using panty liners, sardines, vaseline, cheeze whiz, and some other stuff. It took eight dollars worth of quarters at the car wash to get it all off. His payback's coming someday, it's only a matter of time.
7. For the first month and a half of our marriage we lived in Sam's Mom's house. In that month and a half, Sam worked cleaning hotel rooms, and I was a successful stuntman turned superhero turned criminal. On the SIMS. On the SIMS I was fit, in shape, and the most popular guy in the neighborhood. In real life I gained 30 pounds and didn't bother talking to anybody if I didn't have to. Sam married a real winner.
8. Sam is legally blind and I am hard of hearing, so we can attest to the truth of the phrase "A blind wife and a deaf husband make a happy couple."
Burger King has a site where you upload a picture, and it makes a Simpsons type character out of that picture. Apparently this is what I would look like Springfield.
It doesn't really look like me, but what can you expect from something that's free? I've tried doing pics of the kids, but it doesn't like them. The computer must know that Sam doesn't approve of The Simpsons, so it's trying to not corrupt the children.
Here are some pictures of Andi in her new dress.
The girls (Tess, Andi, and Ella) all enjoyed their new dresses.
I feel pretty...
She's starting to try too hard to smile during pictures. I did that from third grade until I turned 20.
Dylan didn't get a new dress. He actually wore clothes that were a size too small.Yesterday did not go at all as planned. Isn't that always the way? I had big plans to have dinner ready when Cameron got home, so that we could venture out to Mesquite where the closest Babies R Us is to exchange the swing that Cameron got for Addison. (Sidenote: It's not his fault he got the wrong one, I should have told him there were more than one of this brand.) Anyway, the day started to veer off course around 2:30. My sister in law called to talk about recent family happenings, and we got into a pretty lengthy discussion (as is usually the way.) that was still going strong by 3:00. During this time the kids had come in and out of my bedroom telling me various things they needed, wanted, or were unhappy about. Overall, nothing major. A little after 3:15 I heard Peyton screaming from upstairs. I hadn't heard anythign out of the ordinary, you know like a crash or anything, so I concluded that one of the other kids must have done something totally unfair, and I resolved to worry about it in a minute. Only, the crying didn't let up. A minute later, my conversation came to a screaching halt when Andi came downstairs to tell me that "Peyton is stuck in Dylan's drawer." How is this even possible? The drawers on Dylan's dresser are way too small to fit a 15 month old with a head in the 85th percentile. I end my call, run upstairs, and find Peyton in Dylan's room with the dresser completely turned over on top of him! He is almost spread eagle on the floor, with the exception of his legs that were kind of curled under the rest of him. His torso section was pinned by at least 3 dresser drawers that had fallen out and landed all askew on him, along with the actual weight of the dresser. His head was pinned to the floor by another drawer. I worked as fast as I could to get him out, and find out how exactly this had happened. From what I gather, and assessed, Dylan was playing with Peyton. Dylan climbed the drawers, (probably all the way to the top) which then started to tip. Dylan was able to avoid being pinned by jumping off when it was lower to the floor, leaving Peyton below the rubble.
After I had Peyton calmed down, I noticed that he seemed to be breathing differently than normal (which I thought could have been associated with a recent cold, but wasn't sure, since I hadn't noticed it before.) and he kind of had this glazed over look in his eye, and kept staring into space. I called Cameron at work, and told him the situation, and when I heard the worry in his voice, I knew it would probably be smart to call the doctor. After a couple short conversations with the nurse, it was decided that we should take him in to be looked at. Cameron left work as quickly as he could, so he could race home to try to make a 4:45 appointment. (At this point, it is a little after 4. Greenville, where Cameron works, is 20 minutes away; Garland, where the pediatrician is, takes about 30 minutes to get there, so you do the math.) Luckily, Aubrey was planning to stop by my house anyway to drop some stuff off, so when she called to tell me she was on her way, I gave her the details. Luckily, she is a fabulous person, and immediately took action to get my other kids taken care of, so Cam and I could just focus on Peyton.
The doctor's assessment is good. Peyton will definitely have some bruising, but there appears to be no internal damage. Turns out that he is having trouble breathing, but due to his cold, so we were sent home with a prescription of Albuterol, and a "Home Safety Checklist". I guess we know what we'll be doing this weekend...
Sam spent all day today at Aubrey's house making a dress for Andi. Since she was gone, that left me watching the kids by myself. It's not such a bad thing because they are my kids and all that, but I think today I got a little taste of what Sam goes through while I'm at "work". Here's a time line of how my day went, in case you're interested.
We dropped Sam off at the Crookston's house around 10:00 I thought "This should be easy. I'll just do the dishes really quick and maybe clean the living room and have the kids clean their rooms. Then I can spend the rest of the day watching TV or playing Madden. I might even get to take a nap. Woo hoo!"
The following things happened before one o'clock:
I swept the floor, did the dishes, and wiped off the table.
I gave the kids cinnamon rolls for cleaning their rooms.
Peyton thought crumpling his cinnamon roll into little bits and throwing it on the floor was way cool.
I swept the floor a second time.
While I was sweeping the floor the second time, I heard some rustling upstairs that didn't sound right. I head upstairs to find Andi and Dylan pulling all the wires out from behind our entertainment center.
I noticed that to Dylan, cleaning your room means "Take everything off the floor and put it on your bed."
I helped Dylan clean off his bed.
I try to think of a way to go back in time and take Dylan's cinnamon roll away from him. No luck.
I listened to the kids telling each other knock knock jokes.
The kids fight over whether the joke ends with Apple Poopy or Banana Poopy.
My hairline receded half an inch.
I forgot that the children need lunch.
I gave them corn dogs for lunch.
Dylan decides to be an artist and uses his corn dog as a brush and mustard as paint to create a happy little tree on the table.
I wiped off the table a second time.
Peyton thought throwing chips on the floor was way cool.
I swept the floor a third time.
I had to referee at least four different fights and fix one boo boo.
I think my hairline receded a quarter inch.
Peyton took a nap. Sort of.
I sat down to read a magazine. I got up to get a glass of water. Peyton ripped three pages out of my magazine in the minute I was gone.
That was all before one o'clock. The nap I thought I would take didn't happen. I didn't watch any TV. My 49ers team went untouched. By three o'clock I was ready to lock myself in a room and pretend that I didn't have children. Today I learned to appreciate what Sam goes through every day. I'm amazed she's still able to complete sentences and has all of her hair. Next time I watch the kids by myself, I won't be giving them a sugar filled treat at 10:30 in the morning, and I'll have a roll of Duct Tape close by.
