Saturday evening we moved back into our home. Two weeks away and the house was a mess with Christmas decorations up, the tree, and assorted items about from our hasty move. We were like a M.A.S.H. unit for the past 2 months. We had our Disney trip in early December. Then Christmas, which turned into an emergency hospital stay. Which then turned into giving birth, moving to another hospital. And followed by moving in with Jeanette's parents. Luckily our suite cases were still out from the Disney trip, which allowed for quick packing for each event. Amanda asked me when I was going to go to bed while I was putting her down on Sunday and I said "Monday." She gave me the Huh look. "Yes, we need to put all the decorations away, box up the tree, move furniture, clean, then I need to get ready for Monday. So it will be after midnight."
Luckily for us their moods were pretty good since Monday was a holiday and they received an unusual surprise that evening. Jeanette was gabbing on the phone during our trip home that evening talking to Ani. Who asked Amanda what she wanted
for her birthday. 
Amanda responded "a webkinz elephant." Ok, that was the wish, not too complicated. Minutes after the conversation Ani appears at the door bearing gifts. She gave Amanda her webkinz elephant and Liana received a cute powder blue hippo. Now the stuffed items are cute but they don't end there. Each pet has a tag with a coded number on it. So the child/parent logs on to the Webkinz site and they get their stuffed animal in a virtual world. Huh? An animated version of the pet allows the child to play games, feed, care, interact, create, educate and play inside a virtual world. Huh? Hard to describe past that so I added a link with a quick overview. This concept is very viral. Huh? This technology is mainstream, as a lot of toys and/or products have "virtual worlds" Huh? One of my projects at work is to test, analyze and contribute to a huge Lego virtual world. Without releasing an Top Secret information (no shit, I signed more documents to protect their information than I had to for the Department of Defense) Lego has a world for each product line and you interact with other toys, people, environments, etc. It is very fun allowing kids to get educated along with having fun. So that evening Amanda was able to login to the Webkinz site and play some games. She was very amazed on how Ani was able to get her items within moments but, lets just say Ani is resourceful and thinks outside the box ;-)
for her birthday. 
Amanda responded "a webkinz elephant." Ok, that was the wish, not too complicated. Minutes after the conversation Ani appears at the door bearing gifts. She gave Amanda her webkinz elephant and Liana received a cute powder blue hippo. Now the stuffed items are cute but they don't end there. Each pet has a tag with a coded number on it. So the child/parent logs on to the Webkinz site and they get their stuffed animal in a virtual world. Huh? An animated version of the pet allows the child to play games, feed, care, interact, create, educate and play inside a virtual world. Huh? Hard to describe past that so I added a link with a quick overview. This concept is very viral. Huh? This technology is mainstream, as a lot of toys and/or products have "virtual worlds" Huh? One of my projects at work is to test, analyze and contribute to a huge Lego virtual world. Without releasing an Top Secret information (no shit, I signed more documents to protect their information than I had to for the Department of Defense) Lego has a world for each product line and you interact with other toys, people, environments, etc. It is very fun allowing kids to get educated along with having fun. So that evening Amanda was able to login to the Webkinz site and play some games. She was very amazed on how Ani was able to get her items within moments but, lets just say Ani is resourceful and thinks outside the box ;-)What is a virtual Webkinz? Take a tour: http://www.webkinz.com/SWF/TOUR/siteTour.html
Alexandra Update:
Sunday we did see Alexandra. This day we had to do the one at a time visit, where I stayed outside the hospital with the girls and ducks and then swapped after an hour. Lucky for us the day was perfect, in the 70's and I had a stash of food and candy to keep the natives calm when the ducks got boring. Next time I will have to bring my remote control airplane to keep busy.
In Ali's mouth is a pacifier, that evil vile invention to keep kids quiet and destroy their teeth in the future to allow another booming business to grow ... orthodontists. At least that's Jeanette's perspective. For Alexandra, she needs a pacifier to learn the sucking trait, so in a few weeks she can get milk off tap, instead of the college syphon method (hence the tube in her moth now, that goes strait to the belly).Sunday ended well, even if it was Monday morning since I was able to sleep in my own bed.
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