The Winsteads: November 2008

It has been a fun filled month. Pete's work gave him some very expensive tickets to the Jazz game. It was sort of a gift because of his great work. We are not fans of the Jazz but thought we should take advantage. I was really worried about bringing Noelle. These games can last up to three hours. They are difficult to sit through especially for a toddler. When we got there it was enormous and full of energy. We were right up in the front. Noelle really ended up loving it. Every time the crowd would cheer Noelle clapped along with them. They have this great mascot dressed up in a bear costume. She absolutely loved this bear! You have to wonder what goes through a baby's mind when they see something like that. She was probably wondering what a giant bear was doing wandering around a basketball game. She loved his tail.

Something terrible happened to my Nellies last week. On our way to walmart we stopped at a McDonald's to play on their huge playground. She was a little scared at first to climb through the tunnels and go down the gigantic slide but she got up the courage to try and loved it. Soon she was laughing her head off. There was this mother and son. The mother appeared to be deaf and was signing to her son. I never found out if the little boy was deaf like his mother. The boy was probably around 2 or 3 years old. Noelle climbed up high into one of the tubes. All of a sudden I heard Noelle screaming hysterically. Luckily she was by one of the window peep holes so I could see what was going on. One of the little boys was violently slamming her head against the wall and hitting her in the face with his other hand. I was yelling for him to stop. Noelle was screaming "mama." This kid was going crazy on my baby. I couldn't see which child it was. Luckily Noelle got away even though we was grabbing onto her. I think the little boy realized he was in some serious trouble. By this time all of the children had come out of the play area and were circled around me. I asked the other kids where the boy was who hit Noelle and one of the kids went up into the slide and brought him down. It ended up being the boy with the deaf mother. I had no idea if he could speak or hear but I was so outraged I didn't care at that point. The other kids were telling me that he had been terrorizing them as well. I scolded him and said "you do not hit other children." He just looked at me with this blank stare. I couldn't believe that his parents were nowhere in sight. I was infuriated that I had to do the disciplining for this child. I wondered what his parents had done to have provoked such violent anger in him. I can imagine that parents of children with severe disabilities let these children get away with quite a bit out of guilt or just plain exhaustion. I would have been horrified if the situation were reversed and my child had been responsible for such a terrible act. Noelle remembers pretty clearly what happened. She ended up with a big bruise on her forehead from the incident. At least once a day Noelle will say "babies" and hit herself in the head. Nellies has an incredible memory. She refuses to play at McDonald's now.

The Winstead's are here this week and we have had tons of fun so far. They brought a little baby girl doll with them with clothes and accessories. Noelle loves her. We always know when Noelle loves a doll because she will immediately take it's clothes off. She loves to see belly buttons. We went to Barnes and Noble last night and Grandpa Winstead bought Noelle a few Curious George animals. Noelle begs me to buy them every time we go and I always say no so she was ecstatic that she suckered grandpa into getting them for her. She has been carrying them around all day with her.

We went to Carrie's funeral last Saturday. Annie and Cody were there. It was great to see everyone. There were relatives that I had never met. It was obvious that Carrie was loved by many. She was always so thoughtful and kind to our family that I felt like it was really important to be there. Dad's half brother and Phil spoke. The Betz family was very emotional. I can imagine that it brought back sad memories of Erin's funeral. I'm sure they have had a difficult year. The girls Kaylee and Kelby were in good spirits. They are strong sweet little girls :) Jeez sorry this is so long.