Red Envelope Day

I thought that the perfect post for red envelope day would be a post with 2 stories about 2 mothers who made different decisions.

Once upon a time there was a mother who was pregnant. She went in for a routine test and found out that her baby would have down syndrome. The mother decided to have an abortion. She went on her way, thinking that she had just rid herself of a burden.

This story is true, but I can't show you the baby, or the hundreds of other babies with this same story, because they never got a chance to be born.

Once upon a time there was a mother who was pregnant. She went in for a routine test and found out that her baby would have down syndrome. She chose not to have an abortion and to keep the baby, even though she found out soon after the baby was born that she (the baby) would have heart problems.

She named her baby Hannah, which means Grace.

This is a true story, and this is baby Hannah.










Can you imagine what would happen if her mother had decided to have an abortion? Baby Hannah wouldn't be here showing us her nose because she would be dead.

Many other babies with down syndrome aren't here to show us their noses because they are dead. Someone decided that they didn't want a "burden", but instead of getting rid of a burden, they got rid of a blessing.

But Hannah's mother decided to keep her blessing, and now she has an adorable baby who had a chance to live and is showing everyone that down syndrome is not a bad thing at all.

No Human Footprints

AKA "If you insist on thinking you spotted fossilised human footprints in with the dinosaur prints, you're just plain dumb."

We went to Dinosaur Valley State Park yesterday, and there was this big disclaimer on the sign at the first exhibit:


Click to enlarge.)

Really now? Not only do you insist that the human print found INSIDE a dino print was a fake, you choose to ignore the many fossilised human footprints right in front of your nose.

What's this?


Someone (like the person who designed the sign) might claim that the one on the lower right is just a smudged dinosaur track, nevermind the fact that it fits my foot perfectly:


But what about the one on the upper left?



You can see VERY distinctly the toe marks. What kind of dinosaur had 5 toes that were all on the front of the foot, with the one on the inside being largest and then the rest going down in size from there? Here's a closer look:



Here's another set of tracks that we found that aren't as clear, but they show a big person and a little person's tracks side by side. I thought this was neat.

At the Zoo

Yesterday we went to the zoo. I learned something very interesting from Reagan:

The mention of candy will straighten up any attitude right quick!

Also, is you offer to hold her hand, she will demand to be carried, but as soon as she spots the gift shop her feet will sprout wings and she will leap out of your arms and go flying towards the toys!

We're having an epidemic of bathroomerosis; that is, certain people have to inspect every bathroom on the face on the earth. They do this by announcing that they need to go right now 5 minutes after we start driving and could we please stop at that gas station.

Also, it's very helpful to know that if you accidentally forget to put the memory card back in the camera, you can only take about 20 pictures.

14 month old babies love snakes. Real snakes. Not the toys. If you show a 14 month old baby a live snake, it will squeal and point and bounce up and down.

The zoo is fun. Even with all of the bathroom episodes and "lame" 3 year olds.