LuxFX / They Think They’re Newsworthy

I couldn’t resist this one:

I thought, why not? I stood in line for the Wii from 9:45pm to 8:00am when the store opened. It was fun! I brought my iPod and my DS, and didn’t turn either one on. I just talked to the people around me and had a good time. EXCEPT it was about 28 degrees last night, and we were all bitterly cold. Brrrrr…. I’m still trying to get warm! But I’m about to setup the Wii and am really excited about it.

Do I regret standing in line? Not a bit. I’m glad I have a Wii and it was fun.

Would I do it again? Maybe. If there was something I was really, really excited about, there’s a chance I would. But I’m looking forward to one day doing this with Killy. That will be fun!

Today is Ellandra’s first birthday! She is the sweetest little girl in the whole world! She’s well on her way to walking, and can take 4-8 steps in a row now without falling. She has four words: Ma, Da, Mo(re), and Hi. And about five minutes ago she uttered her first multi-word phrase! “Hi Da!” How sweet, and what a good present for Daddy on your birthday! Happy Birthday Ellie!

Happy 27 to Jen! It’s been an exciting year! Ellie was born just after Jen’s birthday last year (her birthday is this Sunday!) so this is the first year we’ve been a family of four to celebrate!

Ellie took her first steps tonight! And by steps I mean it was definitely not a fluke — she did several encore performances. Including her grand finale of standing straight up, unsupported, immediately followed by a step!

This was even more of a shock to me, because today was also the first time I had seen her stand up unsupported! I’m told that she’s been doing this for over a week now, though. Apparently everybody knew but me — and I just never happened to be there when she did it. I can’t believe nobody told me that my daughter was standing up on her own!

And finally, to wrap things up, she really go the hang of feeding herself with a spoon tonight. Amazing. How did she grow up so fast in one day!?

(yeah, yeah, it’s been ages since I’ve posted. well, things are finally cooling down (work-wise) around here and I hope to be posting more now!)

Killy has several favorite tv shows/movies. He loves the Muppet Show, the Biscuit Brothers, anything to do with Lilo & Stitch, and a few others. And he has the interest to watch these shows over and over and over and over and over again. Jen and I aren’t so lucky, because we get tired of them a lot faster than he does! So every now and then we’re on the lookout for new material.

Yesterday Jen thought, hey, The Incredibles! Sure, it’s one of my favorite movies. Jen had been reluctant to show Killy The Incredibles before because she didn’t like the use of guns (mostly in the opening). It turns out that wasn’t what she should have been worried about! It was the scene where Mr. Incredible first lands on the island and gets the snot beat out of him by the giant robot. This robot scared the pee out of Killy. (Literally — all over the couch.) And he started wimpering “mean robot! mean robot!”

Oops! Ok, off with that movie! Later, Killy asked to see more of it — and you could tell he really wanted to see more and was scared at the same time. (he’s really going to love horror movies!) — so it’s not like he was hugely traumatized. But we started wondering if we’d have some trouble during the night with him having nightmares.

Indeed, I took Killy out to go pick up some groceries last night after dark, and he was mostly quiet. But then when we’d go through a particularly dark patch of road he would suddenly whimper, “Mean robots!!” And I figured, yep, we’re going to hear about some mean robot dreams tonight!

At about 1:30 last night, I was working on the computer and the baby monitor was clicking quietly along beside me. I was just humming quietly along, and suddenly out of the blue Killy is shrieking and crying! I sprinted upstairs, thinking, “here we go — mean robots!” I ran into his room and he was out of bed in the middle of the room. I picked him up and said, “Killy, are you ok?” And he screamed, “CHICKENS!!!”

“What!?” I asked as I lay him into bed, sure I heard that wrong.

“Bock! Bock! Bock!” he cried, and wrapped his arms around me as I lay down next to him. Within a few minutes he was snoring happily again and I snuck out, still confused.

What really topped it off was when Jen asked him this morning what he was dreaming about. “Chickens!” he said. “What were the chickens doing?” Jen asked. “Eat firetruck!!” he shouted.

Moral of the story: watch out for those firetruck-eating chickens, they’re even worse than mean robots.

Jen and I agree — tonight’s fireworks event was the best either of us have ever been to. Not just for the fireworks themselves, which were definitely amazing, and we had an amazing spot, but also for how great it was to enjoy it with our kids. Both of which had a blast! It was me, Jen, Erin, Carina (who has been visiting - yay!), Killy, and Ellie. We had been worried about how well Ellie would handle it, since she tends to be more timid then Killy ever was — but all for naught! She absolutely loved it.

Killy was getting restless as we were waiting. We were able to interest him somewhat in the fireworks in the distance (homeowners setting off their own small fireworks). He was interested enough to learn a new word, ‘lights.’ Later he also said, ‘big boom’ spontaneously, and finally said ‘fireworks’ (or at least a really good attempt) later on. But the small fireworks wouldn’t sooth the savage beast for long…. But finally the big fireworks started. Killy was in mid-stride, on his way off of the blankets to go romp in the field again when the first firework went up.

He never finished that step. He just froze for about three seconds, and then as if he were in slow motion sank into Jen’s lap. Never taking his eyes off! He stopped his little toddler-babble in mid-bab and from then to the end the only words out of him were “wow” and “oooh.”

And as I said, Ellie just loved it! She also stared, transfixed — at least for a while. After a few minutes she started shrieking (happily) and waving her arms — a big thumbs up from her! A few minutes more and she decided she wanted a snack, so we juggled the kids a bit and I plopped Killy down in my lap (I think it took him a while to even notice) while Jen took Ellie.

It was one of those amazing moments. Sitting there with Killy in my lap, next to Jen with Ellie in hers, watching fireworks. It was fifteen minutes of pure magic.

Killy seemed to think so, too. About 3/4 of the way through the show, he threw his head back and looked up at me. And I looked back at him. For about twenty seconds or so we locked eyes — an eternity during a fireworks display. We sat there smiling at each other, and the look on his face was completely transparent. “Thanks Daddy,” he was saying, “you do the coolest things with me.” Then he rested his hand on top of mine and we went back to watching the show in silent awe.

Until after the finale: when Killy realized the show had ended, he very politely said to no one in particular, “please more?”