special birthday

Today I celebrate a very special birthday. This week, I will have been alive for as long as my mom was pregnant.

In other birthday news, I wrote a long blog entry for my eight month birthday. I tried to outsmart my crappy computer and wrote it in Word thinking I could copy and paste it into my blog. Turns out, you cannot copy and paste from Word into the blog . . . something about making it into HTML. Since I have been so busy being a baby and playing, I haven't learned HTML code yet. Computers bore me.

blizzard

I did not take this photo. We found it on the Statesman website and thought it was pretty and this is about how much snow we have so far this morning. And our birds are going crazy too. Good thing my dad fed them lots on Sunday (when it was 77 degrees!!!!). I have been taking some photos and videos this morning though. Mostly, I am sitting on my bedroom floor and watching the big fluffy snowflakes fall from the sky; everyone knows that I have the best view in the house. And I am hoping that Luka might call me to ask me to come outside to play though I don't really know what we would do if we got out in the snow.

This is the worst blizzard Austin has seen for 24 years. I think I like this snow stuff. It is much better than the hellishly hot weather I suffered through for the first three months of my life.

ball

Today, my mom taught me how to play ball. I threw more complete passes than Donovan McNabb does in an entire season. It was a fun game until I got distracted by everything else in the world.

I am also busy learning about gravity. I drop everything on the floor. Over and over and over and over again. I know to squint my eyes before the object hits the floor and makes a loud noise. That is how smart I am.

I got two valentine's cards in the mail - one from my great-grandmother and one from her friend. That is how cute I am. I sure like getting mail. I liked being a brand new baby because I would get letters and cards and packages all the time. One day my mom went outside and came back in with a gift that the assistant to the owner of the water company left sitting on our fence. They gave me a bath robe! Very thoughtful but, oh, the irony.

don't make any sudden moves on a sailboat

I know, I know: I still have not finished my stories from my September vacation to the northwest.

On Friday, we flew to Florida to visit my great-grandfather. He has been ill again.

Our trip got off to a rough start. My mom likes to be way early for everything. So a 7:25am flight meant that we had to be awake at 3:00am and leave for the airport soon after. UGH! We had a terrible storm during the night so, even though we left so stupidly early, we were late to catch our plane because the road was flooded out. We finally got to the airport to find that our flight was delayed anyhow. I slept all the way to Florida. And all the way from the airport to Cocoa Beach.

On Saturday, we went to visit my great-grandfather. Sadly, I was not allowed to go into his hospital room because he has an infection. But my mom took me into the courtyard so I could peek through his window and wave to him. You should have seen how his face brightened up to see a baby as cute as me. We waved to each other. Every day while we were there, we visited for hours with my parents trading off - one would play with me while the other visited my great-grandfather. Every day, I would peek in his window to cheer him up. I am his favorite.

My great-grandfather had some sage advice for my dad: "don't make any sudden moves on a sailboat." He also had some interesting stories about the war. He is happy that the Saints have finally made it to the Superbowl. And he is sad that Ted Kennedy died and was replaced by a Republican. "We always felt safe with Kennedy around," he says.