Today is Lily's happy birthday. She got her present last month at our
"un-birthday" party, but we did have cake and ice cream today as promised. We're going to have more cake and ice cream tomorrow at our activity at the church - a Talent Show and American Cake night. I have 10 boxes of cake to make, going to mix them up with a few local chocolate and "baunilha" (vanilla) brands to stretch the batter a little. (The way they spell vanilla makes me think of a vampire.)
So, a few things that happened that made Lily's birthday memorable - first is that she called 911 from our Vonage phone. I hung it up when I heard someone talking as she sat next to me playing with it, then after hanging up saw that she had dialed "91158847..." Oh great. Sure enough, 10 seconds after I hung up they called back to let me know they'd just received a call from our number. "Yes, I'm sorry, my daughter was playing with the phone..." "Ok, just to verify, can you give me the street address associated with this number?" ~ which I did, but then told them "We are in Brazil right now though, I don't know if that shows up on your computer..." "Oh, you're in Brazil?" She didn't say that she knew that I was telling the truth or not, but I hoped she'd take my word for it and that they wouldn't come by our house... "
please don't come!" (via Ryan Hamilton, funny guy, 911 joke start at 3:51, quoting there at 5:05)
But sure enough, a little while later a neighbor called to let us know the cops were at our house. Lovely. I told her Lily had called 911. And then the police called our number, and I said again, yes, that is our house, sorry, my 5 year old called, wait, 6 year old. Yes were are in Brazil, we have a Vonage number - internet phone. "Oh, ok! I didn't know how you guys would have called 911 from Brazil, just wanted to make sure it all made sense." and then we said goodbye. Don't ya love it when kids call 911?
We had another fun event after it was dark and dinner was over and I wanted the kids to start to settle down for the night. Of course that is when they started playing a game of tag and running around screaming and being noisy. "Please! You guys can help me clean or I want you to brush your teeth and get ready for bed!" I'm cleaning the kitchen with Mel who is an angel on earth, and they kept running around, I was trying to be patient with them ignoring me. I took out the trash and stopped to look at Venus and Jupiter.
On Father's day when I talked to my dad he asked if I could see them from down here in the southern hemisphere. I looked and yes, I can, Venus is the brighter one. My dad said to watch them cause they are going to be moving closer and closer together over the next week. Anyway, so I come in after a brief moment of star gazing, then I hear children in a panic and can see Hyrum squatting on the floor talking to Lily "It's okay Lily! It's okay!!!" and I hear Ethan and Abi calling me "MOOOOMMMM!!" I go back, blood on the floor dripping from Lily's foot and she's sitting on the floor watching it and freaking out - Abi is in the boys bathroom - she's standing in a pile of glass - they all tell me that in their game, they put Abi and Lily in the shower, cause that was the jail, and Abi opened it really quickly with a "HA!" to show she could escape, and as she thew it open with a "ha" the whole entire door shattered.
Luckily it was tempered glass cause it was mostly sharp glass chunks, not glass spears and shards.
I carry Lily to the kitchen sink and wash off her feet - she walked on the glass in her barefeet to get out. Miraculously she only had a few small cuts. We got the glass out, put some tissue on the big cut that was making the bloody mess on the floor (it was pretty small despite the seemingly lots of blood coming out), so got her injuries under control and put her on the couch in the front room - now back in to help Abi. I picked her up and she was crying, bleeding, and saying "It's all my fault!! Dad's going to be SO mad!!!" I tried to carry her but she was pretty heavy for my pregnant self and I couldn't put her up onto the counter. I called Ethan in to help me lift her up. We get the glass dust all washed off and pick out the little pieces that were in her skin, then she was good to go. I put her on the couch and then I go outside to take a "I need to breathe" break. The kids are sad about how mad Corey will be, and I say "Dad's going to say the same thing that I've been saying, which is
that we wish you guys would listen to us and not be running around crazy cause when you do stuff like this happens, which is why we tell you not to do it!!"
Ethan put on Studio C for them. Abi and Lily held toilet paper compresses to their cuts, and they were all pretty sober. Things like this really are a pretty huge deal in a kid's world. I remember breaking a window as I played catch when I was a kid - these are the times that try children's souls. They huddled together on the couch and consoled one another in their grief. I waited outside with the gate key to let Corey in. He came home, He had called after the incident and Mel gave him the heads up then. When I saw him I told him all the kids already feel really bad about it, and that I'd already played the bad cop roll, he could be the good cop. And they were all happy that they didn't end up being sent to jail or grounded for life or anything.
Last thing, Joseph called to wish Lily a happy birthday. Melodie answered the phone and as she passed it over to Lily, she said "It's a phone magician..." Joseph thought "That's a fun idea!" So he changed his voice lower and pretended to be Fredrick the phone magician. He proceeded to amaze Lily with his incredible knowledge of all things about her... He knew her age, that she likes zebras, you name it. "I can sense that you're in Brazil... and you have 7 of your siblings there. But one of your siblings is gone in Chile. But there is another boy there with you named Zeb..." Lily turned to Abi and said in total amazement "
How does he know about
Zeb!!!"
It went on for a long time, and eventually it was time to tell her who he really was. But after a few should-be-obvious hints, it was apparent she'd never guess his true identity. So for his final clue, he said "My name starts with a 'Joe' and ends with a 'seph'". After a long pause, Lily said "Joseph!" followed shortly thereafter with a "I knew it was you!"
Happy Birthday Lily, you silly girl. We love your face
