More wheelchair fun

We headed outside after the sun began to set for some more wheelchair training. Lauren is impressing us greatly, and Kyle is right behind her. Watch the video and consider that she's spent a total of about 30 minutes driving this chair before today. The learning curve is a pretty big one, but she sure seems ready! You can see that their big sister sure is a big help.

Dear Mr. Permobil

Dear Josh the Permobil Salesman,

Thank you for loaning us this $25,000 wheelchair. You didn't even check to see if our home security alarm system was truly functioning before you let us keep it indefinitely--you're either very trusting or just stupid. I think you're just trusting, for what my opinion is worth. Because you're smart and adorable and I can't call you stupid until I know where you went to college (please don't say Ole Miss or Arizona State).

So I have like ten square feet of space inside the house for the two year olds to try out your chair. As it turns out, the chair we really want them to have is the more expensive chair, but it's good that we have this "cheapie" to practice on.

I'm writing to you because of the weather. They cannot drive this chair inside my house. As it turns out, I value drywall which is intact, with no holes. A serious bummer for my children driving a $25,000 demolition machine. So they can only drive it outside. On a cloudy day. When it's less than 110 degrees. Which means they've had a total of 10 minutes in the last two months to spend in your chair.

If you could spare this ridiculously expensive robot of a chair until November, that'd be great. You can rest peacefully with the knowledge that a) our security system indeed is funtional, lest a burglar spy your wares inside the house and think he could steal it for himself and b) my husband would cook for you, as a token of gratitude for all this time you've let us spend with your BMW I mean your chair.

Have I mentioned that this chair is only barely less expensive (by about $3k) than the phat minivan in my garage, the one with the electric everything, leather seats, and onboard DVD player? And I have I mentioned that for $25,000 your chair at LEAST could have a DVD player? They're like $79 these days, FYI.

Lots of love, kiss kiss.
Your next paycheck,

Cassandra Byrd

p.s. your chair also sometimes serves as a $25,000 clothes line. Bathing suits and towels have been known to congregate, and dry out, on your chair. I'm sure you don't mind.

Kindergarten: Day 1

Well, it was a milestone morning for the Byrd household. Our oldest, our baby girl, is off to kindergarten. She started off the morning with her favorite breakfast (hard boiled eggs), and then joined the neighborhood kids for the first of many walks to school.

Her new teacher is very nice (shocking!). The parents got to hang out in the classroom for a few mintues before meeting with the principal. I thought this would be a charming little free-coffee social in the cafeteria, but instead we were subjected to what could be the longest and most boring Powerpoint presentation ever. At least it's in the Top 5 Most Boring Powerpoints Ever, anyway.

In the end, none of the kids cried when the parents left. None of the parents cried when the parents left. And at early dismissal today, the kids seemed none for the worse. Jenna reports have a "good, fun time" on her first day. I wish I had more to report, but she doesn't seem overly impressed with anything in particular, except for the cafeteria. She's excited to eat lunch at big kid tables in "real life cafeteria". Here are some photos from her first day!

Checking in...

Hola! So, my family survived a night with me away two weekends ago--woo hoo!

And then they survived a whole weekend without me--extra special woo hoo! I had a blast in Tucson with my sister. It was soooo refreshing just to get away from needy babies who look just like my husband. Though I love all of them, including my husband, of course. But it was nice to be in a room with someone who strongly resembles me for once (talking about my sister here). Sadly, I didn't make it to the bar-slash-batting cage while in Tucson. We were at Rusty's restaurant for two hours before I realized I couldn't hear any batting cage activity, which makes sense because I was confusing the two places. Rusty's is a bit too "classy" to also have batting cages. But truly, a batting cage-slash-bar was going to be the highlight of my trip, because I want to see what kind of people patronize (or own) a place like that. I want to find out what the insurance premiums are for that joint. It will be a priority for next time. One afternoon my sister took me on a tour of all the street corners where Tucson's Finest have arrested hookers and did drug busts. This could literally have included all of Tucson proper, but I think I got the condensed tour. When we realized that this guided tour was cutting into our drinking time, we got back to business in a hurry.

Yesterday, the children and I visited the Cotten farm (not the same thing as a cotton farm, much to Jenna's consternation). If we get avian flu, it will be thanks to the up-close-and-personals all three kids had with chickens. Which reminds me, I'm totally out of eggs and meant to beg the Cotten's for some. If we're going to risk contracting avian flu, at least we could have gotten some free omeletts out of the deal. Instead, they gave me a bushel of green chilis to use. I LOVE green chilis, so this works great for all of us.

Jenna is totally done with her preschool's summer camp program. This is her final week off before she starts kindergarten on Monday. Monday can't come fast enough for me, if you know what I'm saying.

Chris took the kids to Safeway on Saturday while I was in Tucson, a visit coordinated by our local MDA chapter. Safeway is running a huge fundraiser for the MDA this month, and our job as MDA families is to thank each of the store managers for their efforts. Here's the photo they snapped and sent to the MDA. That's my mom there holding Kyle.

And lastly, here's Kyle showing off a) his souveneir from my trip to Tucson and b) his new trick (holding his legs).