Child abuse?

The Winn family returned from their wonderful two-week vacation to Utah and promptly had to jump to the other extreme of the spectrum by taking both kids into the doctor to get a total of six shots. Jarom decided that he would be a supportive husband and father by taking the day off to help Lix with all the consoling that would need to be done. Lix took advantage of Jarom’s aroundness by heading to the gym without the ninos. Jarom then did his best to make sure he is never given that responsibility again. He and Jenna were sitting on chairs looking out the front window at some cicadas flying around the front yard when Jenna decided she wanted to get down. Unfortunately, the chair was more slippery than she thought, and she fell forward, smashing her right eye square against the windowsill. There was some initial bleeding and it quickly started to swell and get very sensitive, but it was an injury that looked worse than it actually was. Lix predictably yelled at Jarom when she got home from the gym. I think the worst part of the whole ordeal was when the doctor had to rip off the Band-Aid to take a look at the injury later that day. Poor Jenna, a bunch of shots and a black eye all in a few hours. Welcome back from vacation, eh?

The day of

A few days later

On the plus side, Jenna aced her doctor’s tests, which consisted of questions like “does she sing to herself?” and “does her vocab consist of at least 14 words?” Either those questions are designed for the dumbest of 2-year olds or Jenna is a genius. Bo is also doing well, and continues to be tall for his age. Jarom feels like 2 months is enough of a sample size and has begun to make preparations for a comfortable retirement based on Bo’s projected NBA salary. The hardest part of the appointment was the doctor’s insistence that Jenna be cut off entirely from her pacifier. She only used it when she went to bed, but after 2 years of everyday use, she had become a little reliant on it. But like any good Americans, we always do everything doctors say to us (except for eating right and exercise), so we scheduled a trip to Build-A-Bear. Apparently this is a fairly common tactic, albeit one that Jarom hadn’t heard of, as he pays little attention to the trends and techniques among mothers. You go to the store, let the kid pick out one of the animals and have them put their binky inside it as it gets stuffed. So Jenna is now the proud owner of a new animal named Binky Bunny. The first few nights were a little tough, although it was easier than Jarom thought it would be. There were some tears, and Jarom ended up laying by Jenna for much longer than usual, and there were a large number of requests to tear Binky Bunny open in search of what was hidden inside, but now Jenna goes to sleep happily without them and her teeth will be less ruined, although given her heritage she doesn’t have much to look forward to in that department anyway.

One morning she woke up and kept asking to wear her tutu, so there you go

Happy 4th

She's a little too big for her pool, but when it's 100 degrees out you do whatever you can to stay cool

Speaking of putting Jenna to bed, it has become one of Jarom’s favorite things to do. Jenna’s bedtime routine consists of brushing her teeth, a bath (depending on how dirty she is), changing into her pajamas, and two stories read to her by the parent putting her in bed. She is allowed to choose which stories she reads. Choice A rotates between 5 or 6 of her favorite books, but choice B is always Sleeping Beauty. And because she hears it every night, she has the entire book memorized. We’re not sure how long she has had it memorized, because this was only discovered recently when she began finishing Jarom’s sentences as he read. But it is pretty impressive, and almost painfully cute to listen to her say things like “burst into the party and cast a cruel spell on the little princess” using the same intonation as her father but unable to pronounce any of her l’s.



Another piece of good news that came was a reimbursement check from Mullins Marking for $350. Those of you with uncommonly good memories may recall that in early November last year Alixa ran over a puddle of paint and marked up our then brand new car, which cost us the mentioned amount to have cleaned up. Immediately afterwards we took many pictures and wrote up the details of the incident and contacted the Virginia Department of Transportation to find out about getting some money back. After a few months we heard back and were told that that particular road project was being handled by the county and we would need to get in touch with them. So we did, and after another month or two they called Alixa back and informed her that they had contracted that out to someone, but that they didn’t know who the contractor was, so they would neither reimburse us nor tell us who else to call. Alixa said okay and hung up, and then called Jarom to tell him what she had been told, which was an obvious and ridiculous lie. So he called them back and harassed the moronlady who answered the phone until she told him the name and contact information for the contractor who had done the work. He then called that contractor and was referred to the subcontractor who was in charge of the road paint, Mullins Marking. He then called them, sent them the pictures and information from many months ago, and was told that he would be receiving a check in the mail for the full amount. From that point, it only required 2 more months and several reminder emails and phone calls before last week, a full 8 months after the original incident, he got a check in the mail. Even by your typical slow government response times this was something special. To celebrate this unexpected windfall (and also their 7th anniversary) Jarom is going to take Lix to the cheesecake factory. He is honestly not sure which one he is more proud of. The refund definitely took more work than the marriage has.





Here are two videos of Lix practicing her baby talk. If you are only going to watch one of them, watch the second.




Last week Jarom had to go on a high adventure with the youth from the church, leaving Lix to fend for herself with the two kids. One evening Jenna was being particularly troublesome while she was preparing for bed. She was refusing to hold still while Lix put her pajamas on and combed her hair, instead jumping around her bed and generally acting like a happy two-year old should. But as mothers sometimes do, Lix reached the end of her rope and had had enough (or it up to here, you may choose.) So she reached over, forcefully grabbed Jenna’s arm and pulled her close and spanked her square on the bum. Jenna looked at her and began to laugh hysterically. I guess you can look at this and say that Lix needs to spend more time in the gym, or that it is probably a good thing that the kid is not afraid of her parents in any way, shape, or form. Also pretty funny, Jarom got a text message from Lix that I will share verbatim:

Jenna just yelled at me "please mommy get in the shower. Your icky mommy! Get in the shower!" it was hilarious