Saturday, July 28, 2012

Nothing good ever happens at 4am

Second to worst way to start your day:

At 4am. I would not wish that wake up time on my worst enemy. 


WORST way to start your day:

At 4am to the sound of a crash, car alarms and yelling.



Unfortunately, my morning landed on the worst side of things. What I thought was the best parking spot because it did not require parallel parking, is actually like painting a big red target for drunk drivers. I'm still not quite sure what exactly happened. I know the drunk first hit the back of the car parked in front of me, taking out his front headlight. He then told me he backed up to assess the damage (aka drive off as fast as possible. as if a drunk person assess anything, let alone damage they do to someone else.), then at some point while backing up he hit my car hard enough to flip his car sideways, and push mine half way on the curb, bend the axle, and make the front door unable to close. I was unaware backing up at high speeds is the correct way to assess the situation. 






After coming to reality and realizing I was not having an extremely vivid dream, and as yelling began to start I dialed 911. In the 5 minutes it took for the two police cars to arrive a neighbor from across the street, who apparently witnessed the entire situation (he must have a worst enemy who is okay with wake up option number one), came across the street yelling very non accident things at the drunk driver, instead of summoning the police, and speaking directly to them.

Drunk person 101: don't engage the alcoholic. Not only that, but don't shout profanity filled racial comments at the drunk, especially when your skin happens to be the same color as his. Also important, don't encourage the drunk to hit you so you can tattle when the cops get there. One punch was thrown, but since this is America and, although close, Obama hasn't completely screwed up the first amendment yet, I will say, he totally deserved it. I would have hit him too. 

Just after things escalated, the police showed up and ruined the show. The first half hour of the cops arrival was spent on hashing out the argument between the two morons. Who said what, who hit who. These idiots, who couldn't keep their mouth shut, are shredding my very precious sanity reviving sleep time.  The driver was asked if he had anything to drink. He and his girlfriend who was the passenger both said no. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn't stand still, but the cops weren't convinced. This was the first time I was able to witness a police enforced drunk test. The guy passed the walking in the straight line, passed standing on one foot, and then came the alphabet. He had to say the letters C-T. Not only did he not preform this part of the test, but had to have the instructions explained to him several times because he was convinced he the officer was mistaken and he was supposed to say the entire alphabet backwards. He must watch too many episodes of COPS. He also failed  the breathalyzer  test, was handcuffed, and driven off. Drunk's girlfriend was concerned when he was taken away because she was too intoxicated to drive her car home. She then became more concerned when the police pointed out even without alcohol she would not be able to drive her car as her wheel was totally bent and the tire was laying on the ground. 

Three hours later AAA showed up to tow my 4 month old car (who is still nameless. anyone know what a child would be named if it's parents were electricity and silence with a hint of Ke$ha?)  to the body shop. It had to be dragged off the curb, and now we must wait, without transportation, until Monday because apparently Geico doesn't believe accidents happen on the weekend, or they just don't care if people have lives and no way to get their kids where they need to go. 




 My early riser came to watch the show. He was hoping there would be a firetruck I'm sure. 

The two good thing that came out of this situation is my 10 year old is able to witness the consequences of not only drinking, but also driving drunk. No good decisions are made from 12am-7am. People just need to go to bed. And also, we weren't in the car. 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Success

It may have taken 29 years, but I would like to announce I have successfully baked a cookie that didn't come out of the oven crispy and flat as a pancake. Ashton, while thrilled to finally have a mom who is capable of baking  a normal looking cookie, strongly urged me to work more on my baking skills so that one day I can become the best grandma ever.


Apparently when you're 10 the grandma blue ribbon is solely dependent on baking skills. Hopefully I will have at least another 15 years or so before I have to enter the grandma bake off.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

It seems fitting Syphr is good with numbers






Why yes my newly turned 2 year old busted out a flawless count to 14, and looks adorable doing it! 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Jaws

Lately it has been Talan's life goal to annoy Syphr in any way. He pulls a Cash, takes Syphr's baby and runs while holding it in the air. Syphr chases him screaming. Talan drops the baby and races to steal Syphr's seat.  Syphr runs back shouting, "NO TALAN! THATS MY SPOT!!", but this time he hits Talan in the head. Talan retaliates by rolling his body into Syphr and pressing his head into Syphr's legs. At this point Syphr is so livid he can't contain himself. If he keeps shouting, and punching, Talan just comes back, so, he bites. He only bites Talan. 

Yesterday he pushed Talans head down and bit him right on the forehead. If I were Syphr, I would have bitten him too. 



Monday, June 25, 2012

they call him "no fear" Syphr




Syphr is proving to be my most daring child. He is the only one of the three to jump off the side of the pool, or the couch with the blind faith that you will catch him. Just this morning he dove down, from the top of the stairs, assuming I would catch him. Luckily, I was only 2 steps ahead of him, and turned his way so we avoided a hospital trip today.

The kid climbed to the top of this strange structure with no help. Talan only made it up 4 bars and screamed that he was going to fall.

It is slightly fun to have an adventurous little guy.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

De-brace face

 Remember this kid a year ago with his newly acquired metal mouth?:


These days he is looking like this:


Goodbye for a while braces. We won't miss you. Phase one is complete. Now we must wait for a few baby teeth to fall out on the bottom and we begin phase two, which will be much more traumatizing since we have maxed out Ashton's life time orthodontic allowance. Hey, at least his smile is excellent.

Friday, June 22, 2012

courtyard coasting

24 hours ago I stumbled upon, and picked up, a can't-pass-it-up bike on craigslist for Ashton. Now that he has his own set of wheels, he isn't totally embarrassed to be riding Talan's training wheel clad bike in front of his friends. It did not matter if it was like a sauna outside today, he was on that bike. He would come in occasionally to refill his water bottle looking as if he had just taken a shower, dab a towel on his face, and head back out. 

This evening, 24 hours after the bike excitement he unveiled what he had apparently been working on. His first trick:


Saturday, June 16, 2012

This kid

I like the evenings when,

No nap + Staying up past bed time = overtired hilarious Syphr




Syphr is screaming, "COME BACK ASHTON!", after Ashton disappeared into the world of cub scouts. This went on for a good 10 minutes until he moved on to the next best thing.  


The next best thing just happens to be wearing two pairs of sunglasses and saying, "Look mom!"


I hope this rare occurrence starts happening more frequently.



Friday, June 15, 2012

Beginner no more

Ashton is officially graduated from beginner band. I'm so impressed by his teacher, who, not only taught these kids to read music, and play their instruments, but also to play the same notes at the same time. After a pre sax playing peanut infested treat, and sanitizing bath before we got back in the car, Ashton was ready. He did a pretty great job, and even kept up with the advanced band on a couple songs. I am looking forward to many more years of band concerts, and hopefully Five Guys trips before the band concerts. 









Friday, June 1, 2012

Toddlers have interesting friendships

Meet Cash:



Cash is Syphr's best friend. It might not be noticeable when he is screaming "NO CASH!!!" in his angry voice, but he really does love his friend. They like to play together, yet know exactly what to do to make the other crazy. It wasn't until recently that Cash really figured out what would make Syphr the most angry, and he was spot on. The thing that steams Syphr up most is when Cash touches his babies. Often, Cash will wait until Syphr turns his back, grab a baby and run while periodically looking back, waiting for Syphr to notice and chase him down. Sy regains possession of his baby and all is well again. 

On this particular day, I told Syphr at snack time that Cash was coming over to play. His eyes grew wide and he said, "yay! Cash!!" as he looked out the window to see if he could spot him toddling down the sidewalk. Then, his head made a very sharp shift to the right, he got out of his chair almost in a panic and ran to the slide where his babies were taking a nap. He grabbed all four babies in his arms, climbed up the rock wall to the top of the slide, still clinging to all babies, and still with wide eyes. The top of the slide is the perfect spot to watch out the open window. He gave me a quick glance, and must have been worried I was not as on guard as he was, because, at that moment, Syphr said his first complete two sentence exclamation. 



"HURRY MOMMY!! CASH IS COMING!!"