Sunday, February 17, 2008

Magical Leg

Now that I have become a father I have been introduced into the world of toys that make annoying, or even frightening noises. Though they may be annoying to me, the person who enjoys them most generally gets their way and gets to make the noise whenever they want. This includes both child and mother . . . and me.
One of these toys is a cloth cow attached with Velcro to an arch over an infant’s chair. When you pull down on the cord it “plays” Old McJoshy. After being pulled dozens of times the tune becomes slurred and the key changes often making the tune nearly unrecognizable. So the merely annoying sound becomes a tune that makes me want to claw my eardrums out. Don’t worry, I’d never do that. The music also gets softer as it gets pulled time and time again. Sometimes it even stops working all together. I’d rather have it working well than poorly or not at all, for McJoshy’s sake.
One of these days that the musical cow was working fairly poorly I was getting somewhat fed up with it. Holding it by the cord I hit the toy against my leg trying to fix it the old fashioned way. I then pulled the cord and to my amazement the toy worked – almost as good as new. The song was a tempo and in the same key throughout the whole song, yet it was still a little quieter than when new.
This could have passed as coincidence, but lets go to a few weeks earlier. . .
Amanda got a toy from her cousin for Christmas that makes a chattering type noise when you squeeze it. A couple weeks after returning home with this chattering toy I was repeatedly squeezing it so it would continuously make the noise. Instead of first getting quieter, slower, and slurred, the toy just stopped. I’d squeeze, and there was nothing. No noise at all. I felt bad because this was Amanda’s toy and now it didn’t do what it was meant to do. I tried making the noise myself for Amanda, but it wasn’t the same.
Let’s return to right after fixing the cow. I remembered that the chatterer wasn’t working so I thought, “I haven’t tried hitting that against my leg. I guess it’s worth a shot.” Well it was worth a shot. After one nice whack (which did hurt slightly) the toy was back. I went into the kitchen and showed Amanda. She was very excited. I told her my leg must be magical and she agreed.
You be the judge.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Count It!!!

Joshua did it!!! For a long time Joshua has been able to sit up on his own, but someone had to put him in the sitting position. He has started pulling up on things and did on the 8th and was kneeling. Then he twisted his legs around and got himself into the sitting position. Pretty cool, but he still used something to help him get there. Yesterday he was on his hands and knees and then twisted around and got into the sitting position without any assistance. I was so proud of him. He will be into more trouble in no time. Good thing I go to work and Amanda has to stay home and enjoy that.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

no fire

This morning I woke up to the rumbling of a fire truck and ambulance in our parking lot. Don’t worry - there was no fire. Someone was taken away in the ambulance, but I don’t know why. I asked an EMT if there was anything I needed to know, and she said no. I hope I don’t wake up to that again.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Happy Birthday Jared!!!

Today is my big brother Jared's birthday. He is 32 today. I hope that lots of people wish him a happy birthday. I think that between commercial breaks during the super bowl people should call and wish Jared a happy birthday. Eat something healthy for me . . . I'll take care of the unhealthy stuff.