Another Reason to Move out of Memphis

On Sunday a car full of angry transvestites attacked the workers at a local McDonalds with a tire iron and their finger nails. To bad for the workers, the trannies got mostly undressed first. You can read more about this here or Rich you can just watch the video. Just a warning to anyone coming to visit us, the transvestites are still on the lose.

Cousin Gabe sure knew how to make Reagan laugh. I think that each time Gabe disappeared Reagan really though he was gone and wasn't coming back.

Happy Birthday Stretch

Our oldest wiener dog Stretch turned 8 years old today. Here are 5 things you might not know about him.

5. Stretch and I have the same middle name, Mark.
4. Stretch has almost died twice. Once when he ate a staple and the second time when he ate half a bottle of ibuprofen. Both times he was rushed to the emergency vet and after hundreds of dollars in vet bills he fully recovered.
3. Stretch is very lazy. Even though he is able to jump into bed by himself (with the help of a small ottoman) after eating his breakfast in the morning he insists on having Beth lift him back into bed.
2. Stretch loves to give teeth kisses to people who are special to him. This includes my friend Jeff, our cousin Melissa and my sister-in-law's friend Anne. In defense to Stretch, each of those people were making threatening advances towards Beth or I.
1. Stretch use to have a favorite Aunt named Sarah. This is until she forget his birthday and started cheating on him with some random dachshund she meet walking down the street anda pug.

Reminder

Only 3 more shopping days until my birthday.

Day 2

While this may look like feces smeared on a piece of paper, it isn't. This was the "art" project from Libby's second day at PDO. November's color of the month is brown and the shape is square, so this is Libby's interpretation of both. They also learned this cute little song that Libby has been singing all day:

"Brown Brown, Flush you Down,
All the Way to Chinatown,
While Your there, Don't be Square
Or You'll Forget Your Underwear".

Once again Libby did great. When I dropped her off she was crying but stopped as soon as I walked away. She ate "most" of her lunch, had her diaper changed twice, and napped from 12:30 until 2:05 p.m. One of the teacher's told me that Libby has a new friend who she played baby doll with most of the day, her name is Libby also.
The only hitch today was during pick-up time. Last week at the exit they had dum-dum suckers for the kids, this week, none. Libby cried for almost an hour because she wanted a "treat". Later that afternoon we stopped at Krogers and I picked up a bag of suckers to keep in the car for next time.

Picture Day

Today we went to Portrait Innovations to get Reagan's five month picture and our family picture taken. Both little girls were great. Reagan was full of smiles and gave them nothing but huge grins. Libby took directions so well this time and wasn't nearly as shy around the photographers. I found out the hard way that they do not do artistic nudes. You can see all of the pictures here.

Our family Christmas picture has been removed so that you will all be surprised when you get it in the mail.

Hair Salon

While Reagan was sitting in her Bumbo, Libby got out her doll's hairbrush and started doing Reagan's hair. I heard her telling Reagan how pretty she looked and that she was putting a "pony" (ponytail) in her hair.

Sisters

After propping Reggie up against the couch to get a few pictures, Libby wanted to sit next to her.

And then she wanted to hold Reagan's hand, Reagan didn't quite know what to make of that.

First Day

Wednesday was Libby's first day at Diaper Baby School (as her cousin Nate calls it). We dropped her off kicking and screaming at 8:45 and were told everything would be o.k. We got a call at about 10:00, as soon as I saw the caller ID I knew there must be a problem. But instead, one of the programs leaders had just called us to inform us that Libby was having a great time and doing really well.
Each week they send home a "report card" to let us know how she did. She had her diaper changed twice (no poops), napped on her new "happi nappi" pad for about 1 1/2 hours, and ate "most" of her lunch. The best news was that they told us she played well with the other kids and participated in all the actives, including the art project of making a "tootsie turkey".
We are very proud of Libby and hope that all goes well again next week.

P.D.O.

Libby has her first day of "school" tomorrow. She will be going to a "Parents Day Out" program one day a week from 8:45 until 2:45 p.m. She has a cute little back-pack with her name on it that she will bring her lunch and a change of clothes. We are not sure how she is going to do for such a long period of time away from us, but know that it will be good for her. She usually cries the entire hour she is away from us in the nursery at church. It will be interesting to see how she does eating lunch and taking a nap away from us.
The program seems to be a really good one from what we have seen and heard. There are 13 kids all within 2 months of Libby and 3 teachers to watch over them.
We are hoping that Libby's separation anxiety will get better and that she will learn to interact with other kids (aka sharing) better.

Hold Your Head Up

Reagan is now rolling over (back to front) and doing a great job of holding her little melon up.


She is a girl of many expressions.

Almost

Reagan is almost sitting up by herself. If it weren't for the pillow and the couch behind her she would be sitting up all by herself.

Reagan is holding her "binkie" in the above picture, our friend Sarah (who loves Mike Koch) got it for her for her birth. It is her new favorite thing, she has to have it with her at all times. She spends many hours a day stuffing it in her mouth sopping up drool and has to have it next to her when napping.

If we moved to China...

On Dan's last trip to China he got his favorite niece (and namesake) this cute little oriental dress.

This was the first (and last) time she has worn it.

Number Three

Two weeks ago during our annual termite inspection, the inspector told us that he thought he saw a rat in the crawl space, either that or it could have been a snake. Neither sounded that good to me. He suggested that I go buy some rat poison and throw it in there.
On Tuesday when I got home from Las Vegas, I smelled a horrible odor in the back bedroom. Apparently when rats eat poison they do not head out to the woods to die. The next day I opened up the door to the crawl space, threw up a little in my mouth from the smell and sure enough there was a dead rat. Being the manly man I am, I waited until Beth got home from work and gave her a shovel and a rake to drag the rat out of the crawl space. I did the hard work digging the grave. Libby and I ran in the house as the rat was being brought from the house to the grave.
The smell in the house is now 90% gone.
During our first nine years of marriage living in Michigan we had zero interactions with dead rats, in the last 2 1/2 years living in Memphis we have had three.
I guess that is three more reasons to move out of Memphis.

Halloween 2007

This Halloween went so much better then last years. Libby loved being a lion and going door to door getting candy. She even said "trick or treat" at one of the six houses we hit. After saying "thank-you" she would roar.

As this is Memphis and there is safety in numbers we went trick-or-treating with our neighbors. Lauren was a little chick and Lindsey was a hot pepper.

After hitting a few houses Libby was acting like a real lion and had to roll on the ground to itch her back.


Reagan on the other hand only made it to about 4 houses before she fell asleep in her mom's arms.

Sleeping Baby

Reagan's new favorite place to take a nap is on the couch. She lays her little head on the pillow and within a few minutes she is out like a light.

The other day Beth snapped this picture of Stretch sleeping with his head on Reagan. She didn't seem to mind.