Friday, December 14, 2007
Laughing?
While changing into her pajamas last night, we think Elynor shared her first laughter. I say *we think* because at this stage she's making so many interesting sounds that it's difficult to discern. But it was definitely different than her typical gaaas and cooos, was accompanied by smiling, and when Ryan laughed at her, was returned. We'll be on high alert for more laughter sightings over the next few days and keep you posted! Oh, how I can't wait for her to join in on the laughter in this house and the infamous, uncontrollable Cochrane girl laugh-so-hard-you-cry sessions!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Discovering Christmas Gifts!
Today Elynor enjoyed unwrapping her first Christmas gifts, courtesy of Grandma & Grandpa Cochrane! Enjoy the highlights of this fun first!
Before...
During...
After... (those socks are for Baby Legs, not for her Mommy)
Whoohoo! I love Christmas gifts!
Kicking the paper is my favorite part!
A gift card to Panera so Elynor can "treat" mommy!
Before...
During...
After... (those socks are for Baby Legs, not for her Mommy)
Whoohoo! I love Christmas gifts!
Kicking the paper is my favorite part!
A gift card to Panera so Elynor can "treat" mommy!Baby Bear
For all you Bears fans feeling the pain of this year's season... hopefully our baby bear will bring you a smile! While visiting her Bears-fan Grandpa, Elynor borrowed a sweater from a 1985 Super Bowl stuffed bear and cheered the Bears on to a Thanksgiving weekend victory!
Who's the Big Winner?
RYAN!
On Saturday night Rye was selected from a crowd of nearly 500 at his company's holiday party to be a contestant in their version of Who Wants to Be Millionaire. This was pretty ironic, since, en route to this, our 5th Patrick holiday party, we both lamented the fact that we'd never once been selected to participate in a competition, much less win a prize (and we're talking good prizes... last year's grand prize was a trip to Bermuda). From inside our icy car we only hoped that this would be our year...
Then about 2 hours later, there he was, facing a crowd wishing they were in his place, vying for this year's great prizes. In order to win his grand, mystery prize, he had to answer about 5 multiple choice questions correctly. All questions related to his company's business... so not only was a prize on the line, but to some degree, so was his face. After getting through question 1 using a lifeline (phew!), he breezed through the remaining four, and to the cheers of the crowd (me being the loudest), selected his prize from under box #3. I'm not sure who was more delighted when the emcee announced his selection of a $400 gift card to Best Buy - Rye or me!
So a holiday party that we weren't even sure we'd be attending will now go down in history as one of our best ever. Special thanks to Patrick Engineering for the generous gift, the crowd for helping Rye out of question #1 and possibly most importantly, my parents for insisting we go and babysitting Elynor to make it possible! Now on to dreaming about what treat(s) our $400 gift will buy...
On Saturday night Rye was selected from a crowd of nearly 500 at his company's holiday party to be a contestant in their version of Who Wants to Be Millionaire. This was pretty ironic, since, en route to this, our 5th Patrick holiday party, we both lamented the fact that we'd never once been selected to participate in a competition, much less win a prize (and we're talking good prizes... last year's grand prize was a trip to Bermuda). From inside our icy car we only hoped that this would be our year...
Then about 2 hours later, there he was, facing a crowd wishing they were in his place, vying for this year's great prizes. In order to win his grand, mystery prize, he had to answer about 5 multiple choice questions correctly. All questions related to his company's business... so not only was a prize on the line, but to some degree, so was his face. After getting through question 1 using a lifeline (phew!), he breezed through the remaining four, and to the cheers of the crowd (me being the loudest), selected his prize from under box #3. I'm not sure who was more delighted when the emcee announced his selection of a $400 gift card to Best Buy - Rye or me!
So a holiday party that we weren't even sure we'd be attending will now go down in history as one of our best ever. Special thanks to Patrick Engineering for the generous gift, the crowd for helping Rye out of question #1 and possibly most importantly, my parents for insisting we go and babysitting Elynor to make it possible! Now on to dreaming about what treat(s) our $400 gift will buy...
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Accosted @ Kohl's
Until this afternoon, I don't know that I'd ever been sworn at. Not that I'd ever heard, anyway. But I guess there's a first time for everything.
Doing some Christmas shopping at Kohl's, Elynor & I approached the women's underwear section. Though I could not yet see any other customers, I heard a child's voice say what sounded like, "F*** you!". As you can imagine, I was startled, but figured this was simply a case of the child struggling with pronunciation and pitied the parent who was surely mortified.
But when we rounded the corner, and said child came into view, I quickly became the mortified one. That's right, this was no case of poor pronunciation. Nope. This 4-ish aged boy, showing no signs of mental handicap, now pointed at me and again yelled, "F*** you!". Shocked, I kept walking, doing my best to avoid eye contact with him or his somewhat scary adult male companion, and giving thanks that Elynor is too young to understand him. As we walked by, he shared these sentiments a few more times (not directly to me, but apparently to the entire store) while said adult companion simply stood by. It was at this point that I hear a female voice yell from behind a rack of underwear, "Slap his mouth! He thinks that's funny.". Said male companion does as he's told, but this only prompts swearing little boy to shout out a few more F.Y's! I now have to hide behind some racks because I'm torn between laughing at this crazy situation and not wanting to make eye contact with the scary male companion. I was also so disappointed that I did not have my phone to call someone else to hear this scene (or possibly the police). After several more random F.Y. shouts and a few more commands to "Slap his mouth!", said group finally leaves this section of the store to the sound of one final, more dangerous threat, "I'm going to pound your face!".
Wow! Just reliving that scene gets me all riled up again. It's hard to even begin to dissect the appalling/sad aspects. Let's begin with the obvious - Hmmm, I wonder where this child learned that phrase, including the tone with which to deliver? And then the threats! Do you think they ever accompany that phrase in his home? I didn't get close enough to see any bruises, but I did observe at least one forceful slap in the face. And finally, the fact that these 2 adult supervisors (I don't know if they were both the parents) felt it acceptable to both keep the child in this public space while he continued to share his favorite phrase, especially during the day when many other children were present AND felt comfortable repeatedly threatening and using physical force. Honestly, it was as if this 3-some thought they were living in their own bubble!
I know situations like this exist in our world, but I guess it's rare that I see and experience one first hand. It breaks my heart that this would be reality for anyone, much less a child. It also breaks my heart just how helpless I felt to influence the situation. All I could do was hide behind a rack of underwear and observe. Could I or should I have done anything? And even if I had, what difference would it have really made?
When facing situations where I feel helpless to influence or fight evil or injustice, I find comfort in the promise that our Heavenly Father loves each of us more than any human could ever imagine and, though we don't always understand His ways, His word promises that He rules in and over all earthly matters, big & small. Tonight, I lift this little boy and his 2 companions up to our Heavenly Father in prayer. May he bring peace to their home & hearts.
Doing some Christmas shopping at Kohl's, Elynor & I approached the women's underwear section. Though I could not yet see any other customers, I heard a child's voice say what sounded like, "F*** you!". As you can imagine, I was startled, but figured this was simply a case of the child struggling with pronunciation and pitied the parent who was surely mortified.
But when we rounded the corner, and said child came into view, I quickly became the mortified one. That's right, this was no case of poor pronunciation. Nope. This 4-ish aged boy, showing no signs of mental handicap, now pointed at me and again yelled, "F*** you!". Shocked, I kept walking, doing my best to avoid eye contact with him or his somewhat scary adult male companion, and giving thanks that Elynor is too young to understand him. As we walked by, he shared these sentiments a few more times (not directly to me, but apparently to the entire store) while said adult companion simply stood by. It was at this point that I hear a female voice yell from behind a rack of underwear, "Slap his mouth! He thinks that's funny.". Said male companion does as he's told, but this only prompts swearing little boy to shout out a few more F.Y's! I now have to hide behind some racks because I'm torn between laughing at this crazy situation and not wanting to make eye contact with the scary male companion. I was also so disappointed that I did not have my phone to call someone else to hear this scene (or possibly the police). After several more random F.Y. shouts and a few more commands to "Slap his mouth!", said group finally leaves this section of the store to the sound of one final, more dangerous threat, "I'm going to pound your face!".
Wow! Just reliving that scene gets me all riled up again. It's hard to even begin to dissect the appalling/sad aspects. Let's begin with the obvious - Hmmm, I wonder where this child learned that phrase, including the tone with which to deliver? And then the threats! Do you think they ever accompany that phrase in his home? I didn't get close enough to see any bruises, but I did observe at least one forceful slap in the face. And finally, the fact that these 2 adult supervisors (I don't know if they were both the parents) felt it acceptable to both keep the child in this public space while he continued to share his favorite phrase, especially during the day when many other children were present AND felt comfortable repeatedly threatening and using physical force. Honestly, it was as if this 3-some thought they were living in their own bubble!
I know situations like this exist in our world, but I guess it's rare that I see and experience one first hand. It breaks my heart that this would be reality for anyone, much less a child. It also breaks my heart just how helpless I felt to influence the situation. All I could do was hide behind a rack of underwear and observe. Could I or should I have done anything? And even if I had, what difference would it have really made?
When facing situations where I feel helpless to influence or fight evil or injustice, I find comfort in the promise that our Heavenly Father loves each of us more than any human could ever imagine and, though we don't always understand His ways, His word promises that He rules in and over all earthly matters, big & small. Tonight, I lift this little boy and his 2 companions up to our Heavenly Father in prayer. May he bring peace to their home & hearts.
Monday, December 3, 2007
PaPa in Pocahontas
Elynor comes from a long line of Indians. Well, not really. But her Grandma Velma's family hails from a tiny town in southern IL called Pocahontas. Her grandma grew up in this town, her mama lived there until she was 2.5, and her PaPa (Great Grandpa) still calls Pocahontas home. So over the holiday, Elynor not only met her PaPa, but made her first of what is sure to be many visits to Pocahontas (one of which included a stop at the Powhatan Restaurant - I'm not kidding, this town even has a giant teepee)!
For you country music buffs, Gretchen Wilson also claims Pocahontas as her hometown and even dedicated a song called Pocahontas Proud, in which she claims, "I'm the biggest thing to ever come from my hometown!".
PaPa's 5th great grandchild, and the 12th female of 14 total great/grandchildren!
For you country music buffs, Gretchen Wilson also claims Pocahontas as her hometown and even dedicated a song called Pocahontas Proud, in which she claims, "I'm the biggest thing to ever come from my hometown!".
PaPa's 5th great grandchild, and the 12th female of 14 total great/grandchildren!
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