Our family had a very traumatic experience this last Saturday. We had some family friends in town, the Brown Family, and their 2 children visiting us for the weekend. With Saturday being too cold to do any outdoor activity we chose to go to the mall. The kids had a wonderful time in the play area, loved the carousel, and we all had lunch in the food court. The 2 older girls walked while we had Phoebe and Max (about 4 weeks younger than Phoebe) in small umbrella strollers.

The lines for the elevator are horrible on Saturdays because apparently everyone is there that has a child in a huge stroller. We opted to use the escalators instead since we only had the small strollers. We had already been up once before, and we were heading back down to go to our cars. Phoebe and I were halfway back up on the escalator from BJ and the rest of them, with a bunch of people in between us. They were getting near the bottom when all of a sudden I see BJ turn around with pure panic on his face yelling “Emergency! Stop! Stop! Emergency! Hit the button!” My first thought was that something horrible was happening to Sophia, otherwise, why would it be HIM freaking out? My second thought was that they were getting near the bottom where the steps even out. So if Sophia, or a part of her, was stuck what would happen once they reached the bottom? My whole body ached at that moment. I felt sick and shaky all over. My heart was sinking as I was moving my head around trying to see if it truly was her. I saw BJ’s hand grabbing at a foot with a dark blue shoe attached to it…..whew, not her! But yet, SOMEONE’S child is hurt! BJ and Spencer jumped off in time to hit the emergency button which immediately stopped the machine. Everyone on the escalator seemed frozen and people around us were already gathering and looking. This boy was crying and screaming pretty loudly and BJ had been yelling loudly as well. When he wants to he sure can have a loud, deep voice, and in that moment he used it! I looked down to see BJ now holding Sophia safely in his arms. I began shaking slightly again and crying. Sophia saw me and her face twisted in upset and she reached her arms up to me saying “Mom! Mommy!” I called down to BJ that I thought it was her. Spencer came back up and helped me down with Phoebe and we went on our way. The boy was with his mother, minus one shoe, and few other women who were helping her.

BJ later explained that the boy was right behind him and he heard the mom saying “Help, help!” He turned around to see the boy’s foot stuck in the side of the escalator. He pulled on his leg and it would NOT move, BJ said. That is when he stood up and started yelling and pulling more. The escalator had not been stopped by anyone yet so he jumped off and with Spencer’s help got it to stop. Apparently, once it was not moving anymore it was easy to slide the boy’s foot out of the shoe, but the shoe was stuck in there tight. BJ said what scared him was the fact he couldn’t get the boy’s foot out, even though he was pulling very hard, and therefore was sure it was his foot that was hurt and not simply the shoe.

Even on the way to our car I found myself tearing up off and on and I couldn’t stop feeling sick to my stomach. What got me the most was that for a moment I truly thought it was my child. This whole situation only took seconds, but it is enough to mark me for life! Just seeing everything happen and knowing how often I am on escalators will make me be more careful with myself and my children when being on one. I can’t get these images out of my head, and I still can’t help feeling heartbroken at the idea I thought it was her. She asked me on the way home, and for the last two days “What happened to the little boy?” Apparently this situation has stuck with her as well. We passed by another escalator on our way to the car and she seemed very cautious and unsure just WALKING BY the thing! I never want to go through something like this again. Please, everyone who is reading this with small children, be very careful when using an escalator! This could have happened to anyone!

Categories: Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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It has a taken a while but I think I’m finally happy with the way I’m processing my photos. Prior to this I was still experiementing with color balance and color saturation to say something about my subjects. Functionally though I want to capture exactly what I’m seeing when I take the picture.

I’m the sort of person that gets mired in the technical details of something. I like to know how each small detail affects everything around it. With the huge amount of options available for processing raw files it took me almost a year to start producing something I can say I really really like. That’s just the colors though.

I think I’m finally where I want to be with regards to processing. I can still find a special photo and make further adjustments so it stands out as a background for my PC, but as photos that we print and hang on our walls I can finally say these are where I like them.

Tags: kids,photography
Categories: Phoebe, Photo Highlights, Sophia
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I think I’m finally ready to start posting my favorite songs from last year.

I’m going to have to group them since I can’t really compare something from Meshuggah to Andrew Bird. They’ll be in playable flash format for your perusal. I’ll also link to the bands last.fm pages. This will probably be an ongoing thing throughout the year.

Tags: best of 2008,music
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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This post is over due, like many others, but better late than never! This last weekend we went to the Dallas Zoo. The weather was perfect for it! The last time we went Phoebe was still a bit too young to really appreciate the animals and the zoo environment, and spent most of the time in the stroller. This time she really got to wander around and enjoyed the animals. Here are some highlights of the zoo:

The meerkats came right up to us and stared back at us. They were so close, what a treat!

Playing with all the big statues they had.

We went to the petting area and Phoebe wandered away from us over to the pigs. She got more than she bargained for when she walked up to a very large pink pig who was being kept behind not much of a cage. She was very intimidated and freaked out, to say the least, and came running back over to me moaning.

She was also scared by the monkeys. One area of their habitat was behind a large glass wall so you could walk right up to it and be very close to them. Phoebe did just that, but when there were NO monkeys near it. One came walking up right next to the glass, and therefore her, and she once again, very intimidated and freaked out came running over to me for safety.

Sophia really impressed me with her memory. It was MONTHS ago that we were last at the zoo, but as soon as we were in the children’s area she asked to go pet the animals and ride the pony. The pony rides weren’t going on at the time but she really liked petting the gueina pig and rabbit. Phoebe wouldn’t DARE touch them, but she sure liked standing on the stool and looking at them.

Granny gave each of the girls $3 to spend on what they wanted at the Zoo. Sophia was all excited about her special money and we kept it safe on the fridge until the day of the Zoo. Every time she saw it she would say it was her money for the Zoo. They both chose the same kind of toy from the gift shop: a hand held plastic puppet of sorts. Sophia got a tiger and Phoebe, the giraffe. For the most part there has been fighting and hitting with these toys. *Sigh*

We love the Zoo and can’t wait to return!

Categories: Phoebe, Photo Highlights, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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Sophia has discovered Daddy’s glasses. She loves them.

Sophia has also posed very well for pictures.

She’s so used to her picture being taken that she EXPECTS it.

Phoebe plays with daddy’s mouth while Sophia brushes his hair.

She likes to get dizzy and swish her hair about.

Categories: Heather, Photo Highlights
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