No Pictures, Just Memories

This blog has replaced scrapbooking which has been both a blessing and a curse. For a while, I wasn't really recording the memories I'd like to remember. So I'd like to list them here so they don't get lost in the haze of time.

• Having my first real contraction with Arlie while dispatching a pursuit. As soon as the officer had the driver in custody, I turned to the room and announced I was having a baby. My coworkers went into crazy action. I had to argue against a police escort home. We joked that the coworker that came into cover the rest of my shift must have broke several laws himself getting there so quickly!
• Andi was my most insane baby in utero. I kept picturing Animal from The Muppets in there. Thrashing and kicking and spinning. Like a baby in a washing machine. Her best kick was right to a very tender spot in the middle of a dispatch. It was the kind of pain that makes you lose breath, see stars, and break out in a sweat immediately. I made some kind of weird squeak on the air. The officers, knowing that I was eleventy months pregnant all called in at once to make sure I was OK. How embarassing.
• How Arlie used to put all her stuffed animals face down, cover them, and then give them very vigorous pats on the back.
• How Arlie used to call Andrew "daddy ho-ho". And beverages in cans were, "daddy's drink-os".
• The fact that both the kids are so polite and we didn't really ever teach it. It's so dang cute to hear "please", "thank you", and "you're welcome" in those tiny voices.
• How much Andi loved her exersaucer when she was a baby. We actually thought she was too young to play in it at first but she'd wear herself out happily jumping. And the sound it'd make: ka-CHONK ka-CHONK ka-CHONK.
• When Andi was a baby and would get fussy in the car, she and Arlie would hold hands. It would be quite the reach for Arlie from carseat to carseat but she'd sit there with their fingers intertwined until Andi felt better. 
• When Arlie was 1-2 days old she nonstop made the cutest cooing noises.
• Kit's first smiles only used half of her mouth. And then she'd try really hard to hitch up the other side.
• We used to ask Andi where her smile was. She would raise her arm and point to her armpit, then try to lower it before you could tickle her.