cruising and crawling

I got a new phone. And after a few days, it broke. The screen is really weak and it cracked in my pocket during daily use. This isn't a good phone for me. Sadly, my phone broke on June 15th. If that date is meaningless to you, it is because you aren't one of the 600,000 people who were attempting to get the newest iphone on the first day it went on sale. So, I tried to get my phone exchanged and failed. Eventually -- after AT&T's service collapsed under duress -- it was decided that they would postpone sales of iPhones. But their company is still reeling from the destruction left in the wake. How do I know? Because I have tried on three occasions to exchange my phone. Each time, I manage to get on the phone with someone, but then something disrupts the transaction. Once it was the inability of the service provider to access their own databases. She just sat there and said, "I'd like to help, but the data network has frozen." So she said goodbye and I should call back later. The other times, I get so close to the exchange happening, and then the phone hangs up. I'll try again on Monday. I just don't want this phone!

Thankfully my phone still worked for an interview this week. Most of the interviewing season has wound down. We will see what offers the summer brings.

To pass the time in the hot sun, I took the girls to the zoo early in the week. Schools in this area get out very late and most are still in session. However, I have learned that many of them spend the tail end of their school year on field trips in order to pass the time. Which means that usually the zoo is empty, but was packed with school children this week.

This made me a little nervous about going to an amusement park this Friday, but we went anyways. Paela rode her first real rollercoasters (and liked them) and I was reminded how much I dislike rides which induce nausea. You know... "spinning" rides. Even carousels aren't my thing. Too much lack of motion control. Paela really liked the swing rides and the tea cups and any ride she could go on with us. The only way we knew she liked something was the request to ride it again: she was stone faced almost all day. Except on the rollercoaster. She grinned on that. And I think on the tea cups as well.

Aderyn has been cruising for a couple weeks now, hanging onto the couch or table and moving around in a unidirectional pattern. But this week she decided to do some spidercrawling. You can see the video here. We now have to move things off the ground and out of her way. With Paela, her attempts to crawl began with slow tummy scooting and slowly developed into "knee crawling". Aderyn isn't taking the slow route. She's going wherever she pleases.

And then everyone got sick. Paela first, with a bad cold. We still took her to the amusement park, but then Aderyn got sick. It might be the same cold, but it hit her a little worse than Paela. She was vomiting in the night and has had difficulty breathing/sleeping for most of the day. Rebecca claims she is coming down with the same bug. We're really hoping the kids get over it quick.