Josie’s New Glasses!

Just thought I would take a quick minute to share Josie’s new look with you.  She went to the pediatric opthamologist today and her eyes are completely healthy – she is just extremely farsighted.  The fix – glasses.  Here are the frames Josie picked:

 

I have lots of thoughts on the college football situation, but I don’t have time.  Until then – read what Zach thinks.  Peace out . . .

The I’s (eyes) don’t have it

Well, I feel like a complete Jackass.  It’s true.  And although many of you know that I have been one for years – I am finally being hit with it in an overwhelming fashion.  Let me explain.

A couple of weeks ago Josie came home from school with a note saying that she had failed her vision test.  I was skeptical to say the least.  I know my daughter – she squirms, she likes to have fun, and although she pays attention and can focus – in situations like an eye exam I know that she flat out doesn’t care.

I chalked it up to an inexperienced person running the exams and Josie being Josie.  Anwyay, we did the right thing though and scheduled an appointment with our optometrist just to be safe.

We took her to the appointment today and I went in to the exam with her and she failed miserably.  I knew it.  And I knew it was worse when the doctor sent her out to mommy so we could “chat.”  It turns out that Josie has hyperopia – or in laymans terms – she is farsighted.  Not just a little, but a lot.  So much so that he wanted her to see a pediatric opthamologist so they could diagnose her better and then prescribe her glasses.  He sees kids regularly and said he has maybe seen two in the past two years as bad as her.

Wow – I feel like the worlds worst parent.  She is five – five years old and I just now know this.  He said she probably hasn’t seen anything clearly her entire life.  Eeesh.  How did I not notice?

I ran my own test when I got home.  I had her stand in the hallway while I fixed Ice Cream.  When I had it ready I told her – I’ll give you a bowl of Ice Cream if you can tell me how many fingers I am holding up . . . she wasn’t even close.  She just guessed.  I gave her the Ice Cream anyway.

To quote George Costanza – “For I am George Costanza Ben Parker, Lord of the idiots.”

She goes to the opthamologist on December 1st.  The good news is that the doctor said glasses will fix it, and the other good news is that she will have a whole new world opened up to her.  She will finally get to see things the way they were meant to be seen.  Prayers that it all goes well please.  We at least know she will be in glasses the rest of her life – contacts when she gets old enough.

As for me, I’m still in shock.

Having some fun with the kiddos . . .

She embarrassed her mother . . .

So yesterday we went on a nice family outing. We left the house at around 10:30 and went on over to Town Square here in Vegas to watch “Horton Hears A Who” at Rave Motion Pictures. I gotta say that it was a GREAT movie! It’s the best animated film I have seen since “Meet The Robinson’s.” It was definitely better than “Shrek The Third,” – that is for sure.

Anyway, afterwards Christina took Josie to play in in the playground area while I dropped the G5 off at the Apple Store for another run at having it fixed (don’t even get me started). I met back up with them at the playground and we decided that since Claim Jumpers was right next door we would just eat there. We had to wait for five minutes or so and then as were are being seated Josie yells loudly “Hey! Make my forks makeout!” I look at Christina and she won’t look up. Our server is laughing, as I am sure a few other people are doing, I am too. But I ask her what that means. She says – “You know, make them friends.” It’s just funny she said it the way she said it – and we honestly can’t figure out where she heard the term. Before now, she would always say that her forks were friends, or partners – but at this rate it looks like the relationship is moving steadily along towards marriage.

Anyway, just thought I would share another Josie story.

Human Popsicle

So yesterday while I was at work Christina decided to take Josie and Cash out for a walk around our condos since it was such beautiful day. They started to pass our pools when Josie wanted to go in and put her feet in. So Christina let her stand in a really shallow ankle deep part of the pool. She started splashing too much, so Christina told her they needed to leave.

But Josie wasn’t ready to leave, so Christina said she could sit on the edge of the pool and put her feet in. But as soon as she got her feet in the pool she started splashing again and got herself all wet. While it was nice outside, it was only in the low 70’s and pool water was cold so Christina told her they had to go home because she didn’t want her to turn into a human popsicle. Josie started screaming and crying.

When they got home Josie ran into her room and was out of control screaming and crying and Christina couldn’t get her to talk to her about it and assumed it was because she had to come inside . . . until she heard Josie saying, “I don’t want to be eaten!’ as she was crying. She didn’t want to be a human popsicle because she didn’t want to someone to eat her. There were real tears folks. She was freaked. That’s about the time I came home and I opened up the door to see her wearing a knitted hoodie, sweats, winter socks, and a snow cap. She dressed warm when she got back from the pool to try and keep from becoming a human popsicle. Ahhh . . . four year olds, gotta love em.

Excuse Me While I Throw Up

We had a short work week due to President’s Day, and then half of Tuesday was gone to a Vision/Values meeting with the Pastoral Staff. So it was a sprint this week to finish everything for the weekend. I was exhausted when I got home Thursday night and was looking forward to a long nights sleep when Josie came into our room at about 2 am proclaiming she had hurled. Great – she also had a high fever.

For those of you who don’t know me that well – I don’t do throw-up. If I see it, smell it, hear the act, or even smell that stuff Janitors use to clean it up in grade schools I get nauseous. But this was the first time Josie has gotten sick since the baby arrived – so in order to keep Cash from catching what she had I had to man up and take the sick girl. So Christina and Cash have been living in the what I call 80% of the house – while we have quarantined Josie to our bedroom and bathroom – where I am taking care of her. It has been rough. I’m not use to little sleep, even with the baby here, and I’m definitely not used to the sick kid thing. But I’m working on it. Poor kid – I feel sorry for her. It takes me a while to get it together when she is going through a spell, and I don’t have the gift of mercy.

So I have been working on my computer and stumbling the whole time to entertain myself. And I came across a video I wanted to share with you. I am sure you have seen it before – but I love it. It’s a dude drumming to Super Mario music, and the drum kit is at least 18 pieces. Great stuff.

And a little Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins for good measure;

She likes her haircut . . .

So Josie got her haircut today – for the first time in a LONG time . . . here’s the new look: (you can go fullscreen by clicking on the small square in the bottom right corner)

And shortly after she decided to entertain us with a song – enjoy.

Movies, movies, and more movies

Hey oh . . . So all is well – life is hectic, but is is a bit different. We are still adjusting to what it’s like to have two kids and to be able to get them ready and out the door in under three hours, but it’s good. Everyone is healthy and doing well. I just bought a video camera so that we can post some videos of Cash and Josie. In the past, we couldn’t afford a camcorder, but I just recently discovered The Flip thanks to Lee and I gotta tell you I love it. It’s affordable, small and it records everything to a hard drive. It holds either 30 or 60 minutes of footage and you can upload instantly to youtube or aol video.

It’s great, I think it may be better than a camcorder just for the simplicity of use, and it’s size (size of a digital camera). Hopefully we will use it well. We wanted to be able to post Cash vids and we are also going to Disneyland in April so it will be great to shoot videos of Josie there! Anyway, here is some video of the kiddos from it.

Has anyone seen Juno? What a great freaking movie. If you haven’t seen it – you need to. It deserves every nomination it has received and you it’s good with Jason Reitman on it. Really good stuff, and the soundtrack rocks. You should own it. Here is the preview.

I am also looking forward to this movie . . . here is the trailer – it should be enough.

I’d kill to fall asleep . . .

Wow . . . life has been pretty crazy lately . . . I had a very busy week this past week. Monday was, or course a Monday and then on top of that I had band rehearsal. Tuesday was a video shoot day, Wednesday night was – First Wednesday, and Thursday I had rehearsal for Sunday. Friday was spent picking up Brenda from the airport, editing, and then a party at Chris’ house. Saturday was nothing but editing. I finished the videos for todays service at about 1:30 am . . . . . I am totally wasted. So after service today I got some well deserved sleep and rest and then went back at it. Since Brenda’s in town we went down to the strip and I helped her pick out a new apple laptop, and then after that it was over to Jimmy Buffets for dinner, and then we hit Freemont Street to check out the “older side of Vegas.”

So I am saying all of that to say this. A lot of weeks that I have are this busy and full. And when the day comes to an end I am welcoming rest – in fact begging for it. But when we were in the van on the way home Josie was giving us the whole toddler – “I am not sleepy bit.” It was amazing. She has had a week as long as, or longer than mine and she wants anything but sleep. She was telling us that since she woke up this morning, she didn’t need to get any rest – she was fine. It really made me think . . . what is it . . . . what is it that makes us go from doing anything to stay awake, to just wanting the day to end.

Kids are so passionate about life and about the moment that they never want their head to hit the pillow, they don’t want to stop being in that moment, where as as an adult I just want it to end so I can stop caring, thinking, being, and just rest.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Why does it happen this way. I know it’s part of being a parent and having to work hard to provide for my family. A by-product of working is being tired – I understand. But sometimes I think about it and get sad that I am truly not living in every moment and I am surely not filled with that kind of passion that my 3 year old has. Just a thought . . . .

I don’t wanna hear the end of any sentences . . .

So we went to Utah last week and Josie did some “fishing.” Here are the pictures . . . . .