The Minton Family.com

Jackie was getting her hair done this evening and I had the kids. The boys had been to bed for awhile and it was time for the girls to hit the hay. After our nightly “flush and brush” routine, they laid in bed for a couple of minutes, then Jada got up (as she always does) to get some tissues. She got them and was piddling around when I told her she needed to get to bed. About that time, she burst into tears.

It took a few minutes to get the problem out of her because of the sobbing. When I finally got the full story, I thought it was funny. She however, wasn’t so amused. She was so upset because she was evidently mean on 11/11/11 11:11 when the other three had been playing and she had been mean (all day according to her story). She said her Mom told her she’d always remember this because she was being mean on a special day.

I tried getting her to laugh it off, and to understand that 11/11/11 was really 11/11/2011, meaning, it really wasn’t all 1′s, so it really wasn’t that special. I also explained to her that the real 11/11/11 was long…LONG ago since both the creation of the earth, and the big bang happened much sooner than 1/1/0001. She didn’t buy it. To her, 11/11/11 was a special day, and she had blown it. She said there wouldn’t be another one for 100 years. I said what about 12/12/12? She said that wasn’t the same, they weren’t all 1′s or 2′s.

Finally, I explained that this just wasn’t that important, and before long, she’d forget all about it. I said “You’ll remember days when you lose loved ones, or close friends. But being mean on 11/11/11? You’ll forget about that before too long.”. Both girls seemed interested in hearing more, so I told them more.

I spent the next 15 minutes or so talking about two close friends that had passed away, the last things that had happened, or they had said, and how I remember them. I also talked a little about my Dad and how his last night was. By the time I was done, poor Lana had tears running down her face. It was still a good talk, and I think they got something out of it. It was nice to see that they do have some compassion given how much they fight with one another.

I’ll check on her in a few minutes…we always do. Hopefully, she’ll be sound asleep thinking about what Santa will be bringing in a few weeks. I love those little babies (she’s 9), and I want to keep them under my watchful eyes for as long as I can…even if they’re mean on a special day.

About two or three years ago, we purchased an iRobot Roomba. It’s a robotic vacuum cleaner able to navigate a room, bouncing off of obstacles and intelligent enough not to fall down stairs. While it won’t replace your big upright powerful vacuum, it will do light vacuuming work so you don’t have to.

When we got Roomba, Levi was 2yrs old or so. It didn’t take long for Roomba to become his pet. He would cry if he didn’t get to “play” with Roomba. He’d follow Roomba around, run from him, put small toys on top of him, you name it. Roomba was Levi’s.

For whatever reason, Roomba was put in the basement and left there for a couple of years. While visiting Aunt Tracey over the Thanksgiving holiday, Levi saw her Roomba and began asking questions…not about where his was, but about what hers was. He didn’t remember Roomba. Aunt Tracey turned him loose for a few minutes, but as the noise grew annoying, she shut him off.

I saw ours in the basement a couple of nights ago and decided to charge it for Levi to see again. Tonight, when I arrived home from work, I went downstairs and pointed Roomba out to Levi. That was all it took. He was ready to have his friend back!

There was only a few minutes before they all left for swim class, but that was long enough for Levi to introduce Jonah to Roomba. I don’t think either boy was ready to leave Roomba behind when they left for the Y, but they did eventually get out the door. Somehow though, I suspect Roomba will get some attention over the following days.

Based on this conversation, I believe the boys were playing hide-and-seek….

Levi: Jonah,  count to 90.

Jonah: Okay…1, 2, 3….Levi, pick a different number.

Levi: 80

Me: Levi, Jonah can’t count that high.

Levi: How about 21?

Jonah: How about 1? 1, Ready or not here I come!

We have GOT to start posting stories more often! So much goes on, so many cute things get said..if you don’t post quickly, you forget things!

So, what has happened lately? Well, Levi beat Lana in arm wrestling awhile back. That wasn’t expected for a couple more years, especially by Lana!

We walked into K-Mart the other day and the first words out of Jonah’s mouth were “I smell toys Dad.”. That kid is good.

Levi told me last night when I got ready to shave his head that he wanted hair like Ethan’s. Evidently, Ethan’s hair angles up at the front by using mousse. So, we ended up not shaving his head and put a little mousse in it instead. Jackie ended up calling someone to give him a haircut, because it still needs trimmed!

We’re going to go to Mimi (Pam) and Uncle Mike’s house to get family pictures done during the Thanksgiving holiday. Mike is doing some photography work on the side and the results are good!

I just got back from a work trip to Boston. I don’t travel for work much, but it’s looking like I may be starting. Not sure yet if that’s good or bad!

The house still isn’t on the market. We had it inspected, and that came out good. Now we just need to bite the bullet and get it listed I suppose.

I got a new DSLR camera recently; a Canon EOS 60D. Below are some of my favorite images so far.