The last 48 hours have been very important here in the Anderson household.
For starters, baby Ervin has broken his vow of silence after nearly 11 1/2 months. He is fairly consistently using the words, "dada" and 'Uh-oh. . .". We have reason to suspect that this decision was made following his first haircut Friday night. He realized he's a big boy now and it's time to start telling us how it's gonna be. Lizzy also received a fresh 'mop chop' but she's been talking for a while now. While Lizzy had a great time getting her hair cut, Ervin managed to hold still enough not to get cut. He had a pretty good mullet going on so we had it removed in order to provide him with the modern era (post 1975) Nascar driver look and take away some of his 'redneck charm'. We need to send out a special thanks to Lizzy for teaching Ervin the word 'uh-oh' as well as it's proper use and putting your hand to your face when saying it. Without her he may still be mute. They also shared a moment in the car on the way home as they both had a sucker (Ervin's first). These kids sure love candy (especially as it usually leads to a bath when they're done).
The other important events have centered around the 'Race for the Chase' in Nascar's Sprint Cup series. Ervin and Daddy were singing songs about it as the Saturday night Bristol race was getting under way. Ervin likes daddy's parody's on classic songs such as Rock-a-Bye Baby. Last night's went something like this:
Rock-a-bye Ervin, on Bristol night,
Hopefully Edwards does alright.
Just a top five would surely suffice,
but winning the race would be really nice.
While we all like to think that this song helped Carl Edwards, we can't take all the credit. Bob Osborne and the team did a great job in the pits as well as with car setup both for qualifying (where they had the pole) and the race itself in which Edwards never fell farther than fourth. And we can't forget the Cat in the Hat, Jack Rousch. What a great chassis and engine program he's put together over the last 20 years. He looks to be well on his way to a 4th championship this year.
Kyle Bush (for those of you who aren't familiar with Nascar, is kinda like the devil) started seventh and raced his way to the front taking the lead from Edwards on lap 55. He held the lead until lap 470. On lap 469 he got a little loose in turn 3 allowing Edwards to catch up to his rear bumper. On lap 470 Edwards gave him a little bump (I saw the video and it was nothing like what Bush described it as) and took him on the inside of turns one and two. From there Edwards drove away and was able to win by a comfortable 1.969 Seconds. Then the fun starts. Kyle Bush (being a cry baby when everything doesn't go his way) drove up to Edwards on his victory lap and bumped him pretty hard. Edwards acknowledged this by turning hard into Bush and spinning him into the infield grass. At that point pretty much all of the 160,000 people in the stadium went crazy. Bush was then called to the Nascar official's hauler for a little 'talking to' about being a good sport. While Bush was getting chewed out Edwards did his traditional back flip off the window ledge of his car (how he had that much energy left after a race I'll never know) then got in a drove to victory lane for the 6th time this season.
If Bush wants to gripe about the bump and run Edwards gave him he better talk to his big brother Kurt about that. . . Kurt has won 5 times at Bristol, four of those five time he was in second at the end of the race when the car in front of him mysteriously gets loose and spins into the wall giving Kurt the lead and the win. Jeff Gordan has a couple of wins like that at Bristol, and "The Intimidator" Dale Earnhardt Sr. didn't get his nickname for letting Bobby Labonte win and settling for second (or any of the other 50 guys he spun to get some of his wins there). That's what Bristol is all about. Plus, if Bush had wanted the win that bad he wouldn't have gotten loose and let Edwards get up on his bumper. The bump didn't even get Bush loose, it just gave Edwards a tiny look to the inside and he got his car in. As soon as the pass was completed Bush bumped Edwards harder than the initial bump twice before Edwards was able to drive away from him. Yahoo has a pole going right now and if it were between Edwards and Bush with no other drivers eligible for the championship, 70% would want 'Cousin' Carl Edwards to win. The rest don't know what they're talking about.
That's one more victory for Carl Edwards, this year's Nascar Sprint Cup Champion!!!!!
Ervin has a new favorite toy to play with in the mornings while mommy and daddy wake up. It's a light up pen that daddy got at the truck show. After Ervin figured out how to get the pen itself to come out and drew on his face and all over the sheets, we've decided to take the pen out altogether, but Ervin noticed no difference. We call it his own lightsabre. "Use the force!"
