My long lost cousin

At a friend's wedding on Valentine's Day, we were introduced to a baby with 25 digits!  Six on each hand and one foot, and seven on the other foot.

This is particularly interesting to me, as my brother, mother, and great-grandfather each had six fingers on each hand.  Little Preston, pictured above, will have his removed soon.  My great-grandfather had his for his whole life.

Get 'em while they're young

Rigby attended his first of many professional basketball games last night.  On the floor: the Portland Trailblazers vs. The Sacramento Kings.  We were in a suite with 14 other people associated with ALCO (Nick's employer).  Rigby was the life of the party.

{These pics were taken with a phone, so they may not be the best quality}

Props to Erin

Tonight I took my miamiads (14 & 15 year-old girls from church) rock climbing.  It was a ball.

Here's Zoey braving the beast.

Madi's going to try next time...
Here's Sis. Briggs looking good on belay.
Discussing the best strategy for ascension 

Erin suddenly unleashed her hidden inner monkey.  This little innocent scaled the wall.  I think it feared her.  

Here she is on top.
I can still feel the straps digging into the backs of my thighs
Haley... 
Good job, girls!  You are my heroes!

Goodnight Moon

Warning: the photography you are about to see is crude (but safe)

The lunar eclipse tonight happened to be just as I was outside with a camera.  The pictures may not do it justice, but the experience was awesome.  Mark your calendars for about three years from now if you missed it!

Now, I know this picture looks something like the absence of Snow White in a snow storm, but it is actually an eclipse.

There.  Now you got to see it, too!

Pretend Dirt

Bethelle is a teacher.  No matter what the topic, whenever we mention anything that she can do and Rigby cannot, she says that she will teach him when he is bigger.  This goes for numbers, potty training, eating, speaking...  If she keeps her word, my job is going to be so easy!

Bethelle also likes to teach us.  When driving in the car, we often sing songs.  Lately, she has been teaching me songs.  As you may imagine, she doesn't really know any songs that I did not teach her.  She sings, "Mary had a little," then waits while I repeat, "Mary had a little."  Then she adds, "lamb who eece-uh-ite-uh snow," to which I reply, "lamb, whose fleece was white as snow."  It's funny to see how many songs she "knows" without really knowing the words at all.

Last night we all had a little ice cream with crushed oreos on top.  Nick told her it was dirt.  Thinking I would like to avoid future incidences, I pointed out that it was actually pretend dirt.

She turned to Nick and said, "putend dirt, Daddy."

Nick, "pre-tend"

Bethelle, "putend"

Nick, "pre-tend"

Bethelle, "putend"

Nick, catching on, "putend"

Bethelle, "dirt"

At this point, some of my ice cream came bursting out of my mouth.  I hadn't realized that she was not trying to copy what he was saying; she was trying to teach him how to say it correctly.  She thought that he was trying to get it right.  Only when he said "putend" correctly did she go on to the rest of the phrase.

Rigby is certainly growing up.  He is a very good baby, and so adorable (OK, I'm his mom)!  He's still not grasping how much better of a mom I am when he has given me a good night's sleep.

Best Friends

Murphy's Week

This has been quite a crazy week.  In the peak (valley?) of the cold weather, our heat pump froze over.  Fortunately, we have two propane fireplaces.  After using them for a couple days, the one in the family room filled with soot.... not a good sign.  We cleaned it and it filled again immediately.  We were then down to just the fireplace in our master bedroom to heat the house.  At about the same time, our van began smoking while driving it.  After a little investigation, we found that it was squirting oil when it was on.  This apparently means either a very quick fix (unlikely) or a crack in the engine block (a totaled 1995 minivan).  I was also summoned for jury duty in both Pierce and Kitsap county.  This might be fun, if I didn't have a 3 month old and a "big girl."

The happy ending:

As of yesterday, we know what to do to fix the heat pump and have been able to get our electric furnace working.  We also have a couple of tests to run on the fireplace.  The van turned out to need a new o-ring ($2.50) and I was excused from at least one county's jury duty and am hopeful of the other.  

In other good news, we finally installed the sink in our half bath (thanks, Dad and Nick!) and ... drumroll please ... Bethelle is officially potty trained.  It seems that Murphy can work in reverse as well.

Bethelle at the keyboard (notice she actually got "tree" in there):

ooiikio9ii898999ioiiiiiiiiiiiy6t6yi9999699999889089i 98998i8pllkkkiiiiiuuuiuuiiiiiii  '\iiii867u8u8y6yu878hijiiyouuiirtyuuyyytttutreefffffffeeftrretgeyeytftrtuibvg vgghvgfcdgvtyvyhttttrttfffgdddde5rrfddcf ggvhkj/'

Please respond

I have had the hiccups all day today.  One effort to rid myself of the nuisance left me wondering something.  When I hold my breath as long as possible and need to take that next breath, what am I really feeling?

A later experience that evening then prompted this: When you eat that perfect chocolate mousse cake, what makes you NEED that glass of milk?  What is happening, biologically and psychologically?