Where are my ears?

 

Christmas with Lindita

We had the most relaxing Christmas ever. Lindita was teething, and all morning she sat on my lap and let Daddy and me play her new game, Wii Music.

First thing in the morning, Lindita climbed down and ran for Evelyn's room. She was disappointed that Evelyn's bed was empty. She did the same thing this morning. Seven more days, Deet-deet, until your sister is home.

Big Christmas

On Saturday we opened presents with my family and Jorge and Eva.

Lindita's favorite gift: Eva bought her a soft Diego that's about her height. "Day-go!" she cries, and hugs him, and carries him around. He's her new boyfriend.

Evelyn's favorite gifts: Rachel bought her a Rescue Pack. Mom's friend Pat bought her one of those toys where you press your face into the blunt-tipped nails to make a 3-D impression. Nana and Pa-pa bought her princess dresses.

Eric's favorite gift: that would be the cheat card for Nintendo DS, which allows him to modify his Pokemon.

Jorge's favorite gift: Evelyn gave him a Mario mushroom, so that he can get even bigger.

Lindita's favorite gift of Evelyn's: a Pokemon dice game from Eva and Jorge. Lindita spent at least half an hour putting the dice in the cup and dumping or shaking them out.

Both girls' favorite gift of Nana's: a rocket ship with astronauts. Evelyn picked this out.

Lindita's First Sentence

"Play Diego"

Yes, her first sentence is about a video game based on a cartoon character.

The parking spot color obsession

Nana's update:

I don't like grandmas anymore cried Evelyn when she found out I parked on a red parking square. Boo-hoo. I said but Evie, they all looked white to me today.

Her school has alternating colors in the parking lot: one spot red, one spot white. Lately Evelyn insists on a white parking spot for drop-off and pickup. Woe unto Nana, who chose the wrong color today in the snow.

Mohawk

 

My day at work

We had some fun at work today.
The stores called the helpdesk because sales weren't saving. Why aren't sales saving? They're taking forever! Like twenty minutes -- how is that even possible?
By increasing log levels, we identified that sales were hanging inserting into a particular table. They hang getting the next available ID, all because one particular sale has a lock on that. What is that particular sale waiting for? Ah-ha, someone has a discount coupon locked in an unrelated process, and that sale wants to use the coupon. Let's call them! They need to close that window.
I try to call the offending store from my work phone. It doesn't work. I try from my cell phone. It doesn't work. Somebody in Kansas City is holding up sales at all stores nationwide, and we can't call them!

In the end, I called the district manager, who called the store manager, who called the manager on duty that day, who called me back. The lock was released, sales started flowing again, and now he knows that their phone is broken. ("That's why no one has called us all day!")

Stuff like this is my favorite part of working IT.

post-Thanksgiving updates

The family had a lovely Thanksgiving. Mama Cat, Aunt Bunny, Uncle Seth, Cousin Liz, and Uncle Gene came to visit. Our two favorite Spaniards joined us for dinner. Later, the girls and I followed Mama Cat to Hannibal. (except our minivan arrived a few seconds before hers did - that's important if you're Evelyn.)

Evelyn's favorite: Going Bonkers, with all of us and Uncle Josh. Lindita enjoyed that too, despite being napless.

Lindita's favorite: Uncle Seth.

Food drive

This morning Evelyn and I went downstairs to the pantry to choose food for the food drive. I told her about the families who don't have enough food to eat. She decided to give them some of her favorite beans, a container of bread crumbs, some jelly for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and chocolate milk for them to drink.

Lindita is both organized and incredibly messy at the same time. She likes to put things back, put things on shelves, put lids on things, and put things away. But she's 1. She can't help being messy. Yesterday morning at breakfast, we gave her blueberries (thawed from frozen). After eating a few, she lined up the remaining ones on the counter, in a neat row -- neat except for the blueberry juice oozing into puddles on the counter and down to the floor, and except for the blueberries she dropped on the floor.
This evening she found a strawberry in a plastic bowl. She took the strawberry out, pulled it apart, ate some, and put the remaining bits back in the bowl. Then she set the bowl down on the air. Maybe she meant the counter, but she missed totally, and plonk, bowl and strawberry bits all over the floor.

Evelyn is interested in road signs, especially the ones with a circle and a line. The other day we sat at a stoplight in front of "No left turn." She knows that one. A car went straight through the light across the street. "That's a bad car! Turning left is not acceptable!" I tried to explain to her that it's okay to go that way if you're going straight, but not from the direction we were coming from. She didn't get it. "No right turn on red" is another tricky one.

Tonight while getting Lindita ready for bed, I couldn't find any pants for her. Her drawer was full of shorts. Nana looked through the clean clothes pile but didn't find any. Then out of the bathroom wanders Lindita, holding out... pants! She found the pants she wore before the bath and brought them to me. Wow! Coincidence? She tried to put the pants on by herself by pulling them over her head. She tries to put all clothing on her head, including socks.
Smart about the pants, right? ... but what was she doing in the bathroom before she brought out the pants? Throwing her favorite book in the bathtub. The book is "Pajama Time," not "Bath Time," silly Deeter Doo.

and now it is Kitchen Time.

Revenge

Lindita dunked Dora in the toilet for a while and then threw her into the garbage can.

new rug

 

A different child

Last night, after Lindita's bath, she sat naked on Evelyn's bed playing with a toy. I approached with a diaper and pajamas. Lindita saw me coming with the diaper and ... laid down. She laid down on the bed and let me put on her diaper and pants! She continued playing with the toy. No rolling away, no fleeing, no squirming, just sweet cooperation. Wow. She is not a clone of her sister, that's for sure.

pictures

Dancing with Daddy:

 

Wrestling sisters:

 

Evelyn at the zoo:

 

Lindita is a power star for Halloween:

 

Evelyn had costumes ready for Mario, Luigi, King Boo, Princess Peach, and Rosalina. At the last minute, she insists she's Yoshi. She can be Yoshi by wearing any green pants and green shirt. Okay, Evelyn, if you declare that you're Yoshi, then you are.

 

At Gymnastics, she wore Mario:

 

Election Day!

Have you voted yet?
The line at our polling place was a little over an hour long, before we left for work. Evelyn was late to school. It's for a good cause.

There are lots of pictures over at the mobile blog from our zoo trip last Sunday. http://jessitron.vox.com

Here is a really interesting article.
It's about how Christians in America get a little too hung up on our country, when we should be more focused on our Heavenly kingdom. What do you think?

Nervousing

Lindita loves buttons. She likes the power buttons on Evelyn's computer and on the TV. Yesterday, Nana reports, Evelyn was playing Mario Kart while Lindita hovered near the TV. Evelyn called out, "Nana, she's nervousing me!"

Lindita has learned to pour water from one cup to another. She likes to put lids on things. She tries really hard to dump out cereal boxes, to get at the food.

Evelyn has been under the weather the last few weeks. She's well enough to go to school, except she's short on sleep. The child will not nap until she collapses.

Last Sunday Aunt Bunny and I took Evelyn to a party at the zoo. It was a very nice party. I have a bunch of pictures - one of these days I'll upload them. Now, at the zoo, we pointed out the word "ZOO" in a few places, and went over how it is spelled. Yesterday, Evelyn spotted the word "zoo" on a magazine and read it! She also recognized the word "zoo" in Good Night, Gorilla. This is progress.

Lindita says "Hot" when near the oven. She knows that my coffee cup and steaming pitcher are hot. This morning she touched her eggs and then pronounced them "hot." Then she attempted to blow on them, unsuccessfully.
She loves to listen to music, but when we turn on the CD player she tries to unplug it. She dances and claps when not chasing electricity.

Evelyn's Christmas wish list

I'll put toys that Evelyn wants on this wish list. It'll show you what she likes. Don't feel obligated to buy from the list directly; some of the stuff is way cheaper elsewhere, and the toys are available in many forms. This will show you some of her favorite Pokemon. She also loves anything related to Mario Kart.

Lindita is 1

Don't mind me -- I'm cranky from too little sleep.

Lindita is now one year old. Hurray Lindita! We never did get a proper birthday celebration in this weekend. She had a cupcake on the deck. Mama Cat brought her a toy laptop with lots of buttons. Nana reports that she likes to use it as a seat.

Pa Pa worked his butt off this weekend to install a swing set in the back yard. The kids are crazy about it.

Evelyn is Luigi today. Each day, she is Mario or Luigi or King Boo or Princess Peach or Rosalina. Occasionally she's Yoshi or Donkey Kong. She is all about the Mario Kart characters. For Halloween we're preparing for any of the above. I just ordered her a blue dress and silver shoes for Rosalina days. She's going to be thrilled.

Lindita is interested in dogs (she pants huh-huh-huh to say "dog") and cats ("Daa!") and books ("buuuh") and balls ("buuuh"). She enjoys pulling things off of shelves and dumping food on the floor. She usually has a scrape on her forehead from a sidewalk encounter.

Eric says that he is tired too.

Health care

Here's a summary of a report about the health care plans of the two candidates.

It hypothesizes the insurance situation in 2010 and the costs over the next decade if each plan is implemented.

McCain -> 21.1 million fewer uninsured
Obama -> 26.2 million fewer uninsured

McCain -> $2 trillion cost over 10 years
Obama -> $1.1 trillion cost over 10 years

The distribution of those insured changes, too: in McCain's plan, those with chronic conditions are less likely to be insured than they are now. In Obama's plan, the sick are more likely to be insured than they are now.

And this report was "more optimistic" about McCain's plan than other comparisons have been.

Which plan is better? DUH!

OCD

Evelyn, yesterday, very sadly: "At school, it wasn't a very good day, because Daddy didn't park in a red spot."

The parking lot at her school is brick, sort of, and it alternates between red and white for each parking spot. Evelyn strongly prefers the red spots.

Eric: "Rrrrgh. This happens every day when I park in a white spot. There weren't any red spots open."