I expected to get a little further tonight on a post, but spent most of my time transferring software to our new computer. I actually tried buying a custom computer from Monarch Computers on Nov 1. I’d just finished the PE exam and thought it was good time. It’s a long 8-week story, but they couldn’t deliver. After a lot of hassle, they finally agreed to give me my money back last week. We drove the 12 hours home yesterday from Florida. It wasn’t as long as the trips that the Lewiston clan has made, but it was still tiring. We had a great visit. E was walking all by herself in the kiddie pool by the end. I still stayed close in case she lost her balance, but she never did. We were all very proud of her. We drove home in one day, because we really needed today to get several chores done. We got up and cranked through an impressive number of errands. One of which was to find and buy a new computer. We found one that I liked at the TigerDirect store in town. I guess the stars aligned because when we got home this evening there was a big envelope in the mail. I found out that I passed the PE exam today. The standard joke question is to ask if you got the ‘big’ or ‘small’ envelope. The small envelope is a single folded sheet with some sort of ‘better luck next time’ message. Getting the mail the last couple weeks had been stressful. There usually wasn’t a big envelope. So I would have to go one by one through the small ones looking for the ding. I am really glad that I don’t need to take it again. I’m also very thankful that Liz took E out of the house on trips for all those weekends so I could study.
I have been working on the ‘Claw and Order’ episode filmed at Thanksgiving. I’m about 65% there. I was hoping that I would have had the new computer several weeks ago and have it done by Christmas. I think it will be pretty funny. The ending is left open so that we can add onto it (solving the ‘cold case’) next Christmas if we want to.
I hope everyone has a happy New Year’s Eve and Day.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. Things are going well here. E had a great morning. She was a real trooper powering through her nap time as we opened presents. Kudos to Bear for his gift of a small baby doll. E was so excited while it was being opened that she bobbed up and down while making squeaking noises. She fed her “BeBe” for some time with the little bottle. A majority of the rest of the time she spent feeding herself Goldfish with a wooden spoon that Liz got in her stocking. When we finished opening presents, we put E in her pack and play. She cried in protest for about 2 minutes and then passed out. She is still sleeping.
Yesterday she made me very proud. We went down to the kiddie pool. E is somewhat afraid of the water. When taking a bath she likes to hold onto the side. When asked if she would like to go into the pool she shook her head vigorously left to right and said “NO! NO! NO!”. So Daddy sat on the first step in the pool with E on his lap. Granddaddy played games with his hands and toes to take E’s mind away from the water. I gradually moved lower and lower in the water until I was sitting on the bottom. After about 10 minutes E was standing. Eventually she became brave enough to walk around while holding someone’s hand. She laughed and played with the water. We were all very happy for our brave little girl.
Thank you everyone. All of the gifts are wonderful. I’ve been listening to my first iPod MP3 player from Paula while I made the post! We have been spoiled.
Just a quick post. Liz is traveling the first half of this week. E and I are missing her at home. Yesterday we went to Greensboro to visit Mer. Her house looks better every time we visit. She made chocolate waffles for us and then we went on a walk through the arboretum near her house. Cole was a very nice dog and let E pet him many times. As expected, Mer is wowing her colleagues with her fundraising skills.
Because of the long drive with limited space, we have let E pick a few presents from my family to open before Christmas. We will use this highly practical SOP for our future traveling for years to come. We can bring small presents, but it will be difficult to bring them all to one place and then bring them all back again. Especially when there are two kids. I’m sure E and her little brother or sister will have something to say about this. Fortunately it will be in German and difficult to understand. Below are pictures of the two presents that E opened on consecutive days. The first is a very cool percussion set from E’s Aunt Nine and Uncle Lee. It’s very cool. E liked the noise aspect, but was most fascinated with the fact that most of the parts stored inside the drum. Open … Close … Open … Close…J The second is a beautiful hobby-lion from Grandma (”Bma”) and Grampa (”Bpa”). It roars and has some movement. It definetly got E’s attention the first time it roared!