when i was afraid

sweet m. called me from school on tuesday around noon. i came and picked her up and i could tell she was feeling horrible. on friday morning she was doing a lot better and we almost sent her to school, but i felt like we should keep her home one more day just in case. that afternoon she was lethargic, her cough had become much, much worse, and her temperature was up. i took it at home and it was 101.3. after trying to contact our family doctor a few times i took her to the urgent care, where they found her temperature to be 105.3 degrees. they almost sent her straight to the emergency room (they said 105 temperature can cause seizures) but instead they attempted to get her temp down there. when we left about an hour later her fever was back down to 101.4 and she was feeling a lot better.

they gave her a prescription and she has improved a lot over the last couple of days.

it's such a relief. i can't explain how terrified i felt when they said she could be having seizures and that they were considering sending her to the e.r. you know, there are so many times when m. frustrates me and i forget to see her for how precious and special to me she really is. the only good thing about her being that sick was it really put things into perspective. it didn't matter that sometimes she can be pouty or stubborn. all i could think of was how much i love her, how kind she is and how helpful she tries to be with me, how concerned she is for people around her. and how incredibly blessed i am to be her mom.

brushing aside waves to look for water

home life. it doesn't offer many surprises. there are so many chores. it's easy to get discouraged (for me at least.) i get frustrated with my children a lot. i let them watch too much t.v. i feel like there are too many improvements that i need to make.

luckily i get reminders, almost daily sometimes, of how lucky and blessed i am. seeing nie-nie on oprah, conference, capturing a moment with one of my children in photo form, or reading a really good quote.

like this one that my friend kat put up as her facebook status a few days ago, "If you seek some special life outside of daily activities, that is like brushing aside waves to look for water."

bananas

whenever my kids are feeling grumpy and i want everyone to perk up a little, i put on this clip of the aggrolites on yo gabba gabba. works every time.
The Aggrolites - Banana (Yo Gabba Gabba!)

do you have a song that always makes you/your kids happy dance fools, no matter what?

milk teeth

sweet m.'s tooth was really, disgustingly, loose last week.

then it came out. this is her fourth baby tooth gone, but her first on the top row. i think missing one from the top makes a lot bigger difference.

i'll follow the sun

i love taking photos into the setting sun. it gives the kids a kind of halo effect around their hair and i think it looks so pretty.

flip flop, part 2

so you'll remember that last week the flip house (sometimes we call it the bungalow in fond remembrance of our first tiny basement apartment together) looked like this:

one week later and a lot of hard work on the hubs' part, it looks like this: (that's him up on the roof, don't worry, he's a pro.)

it may be the gorgeous people standing in front, but i think the place is starting to look TONS better! (also, it may be hard to tell in this picture but they are each holding a toy tool from little c.'s tool box. he brought it to help daddy work.)

just doing his part!

i know where the summer goes

today might have been the last swimsuit-wearing, playing in the water day of the season. 

sometimes don't you wish you had a camera on your kids twenty-four hours a day so none of the precious moments would be missed? that's how i felt today. so i apologize for the abundance of pictures.

p.s. i'm having trouble getting my images to look right in blogger, sorry.

i'll see you at home

this is one determined young man. and yes, that corn dog is roughly the size of his head. this was taken at the state fair on monday.

i was thinking about what to write about our experience at the fair, and what pictures to put along with the post. (the only pictures i got were of the kids eating their corn dogs.) i thought about all the fun little day trips we've taken with the kids this summer, sometimes impromptu and sometimes an outline of a plan in place.  each trip has had its own unexpected turn, its own small adventure, with some good music and snacks thrown in.

but other than that all of them have had something else in common. no matter how much fun we had i was always excited to get home.

when we reached the point in each trip where someone said, "let's go home," or "it's time to head home," i felt a little thrill of happiness.

i have a home.

and it's with these people.

how lucky can one girl be?

dorothy was so right. i'm going to print out that line and cross-stitch it or something. and then frame it. there really is no place like home.

ch-ch-changes

sweet m. started first grade on monday. when the bus dropped her back home that afternoon she said, "i don't like being at school all day. i had a headache, and a stomachache." she told me everything that happened and it sounded like there was some good in there too, but she was NOT looking forward to school day #2. for a brief moment visions of homeschooling flashed in my brain. and then i told her that she would get used to it, and tomorrow would be better, and all those things that i thought moms should say to make situations like this better.

flash forward to day 2:

sweet m. gets home and sits down to take off her jacket and shoes and socks. she starts telling me about her day.

she makes funny faces at me (and models some of the hello kitty swag i got her from the dollar bin at target.)

she gets fake-mad at me for taking so many pictures.

she tells me long, complicated stories about who she played with at recess and how her teacher gave her the "big poster" for being good.

sweet m. is so happy. and all is right with my world again.

sweet m. is 6!

m. has a little collection of matryoshka dolls (and kokeshi dolls, too) so we thought, "matryoshka doll party!" (you know from this blog's banner that i'm a fan!)
we read about stephmodo's party for her daughter and used her ideas for games: pin the bow on the matryoshka and hide and seek with matryoshka dolls. each little girl got her own little wooden doll to paint, and we read this book. here are some images:

popsicles

(taken through the screen door...i snuck up on them.)

i'm enjoying the summer so far, are you? when m. first got out of school i was worried and stressed, i thought, "how am i going to keep both of them entertained all day long?" but things have worked out quite well. we've had a few craft days, we've been to the zoo, we've gone to park day, the library, and we went to the river to feed the ducks a couple of times. but mostly things have been really laid back. kiddie pools in the backyard, swimsuits all day long, and popsicles. lots and lots of popsicles.

yes, those are my son's fingers inside that goat's mouth

the boy has no fear

hail the conquering graduate!

yesterday was sweet m.'s kinder graduation. both sets of grandparents and one aunt came to celebrate! it was so sweet, a real rite of passage.

somebody apparently told lil' c that he was the entertainment for the evening.

they had them walk in like they were in a wedding, you know "step-together, step-together" but they didn't walk in to "pomp and circumstance." i think it was "start spreading the news..." much more festive. try telling sweet m. that. she looks like she's in church. or prison. don't worry, it gets better...

finally, a smile! hooray, i knew she could do it!


ok, i am a silly mommy, i put up two pictures of the singing gestures, but let me explain. at the christmas concert a few months ago m. was not the most excited performer. she barely moved her lips, looked like she was in physical pain, and wouldn't do any of the hand gestures. so this is major steps forward, my friends!

she got her diploma! and i took a really bad picture of the back of this kid's head with m. in the background!

sweet m. with her teacher, mrs. d. she was such a great teacher.

i think my favorite part of the whole experience was a slideshow that they showed in between the songs and the diplomas. i was really trying to hold back the tears but man, did i bawl like a wee tiny baby! i just kept thinking, i put her on a bus, and she has this whole other life, this whole other world that she's a part of without me. and she's getting so big!

bittersweet symphony

sweet m. just came out of her room and said, "i can't believe tomorrow is the last day of school!" my sentiments exactly. it really is difficult to believe that she's been a kindergartner for a whole school year now, and that in a few months i'll have a first-grader on my hands.
i think m. has grown so much this past year. not just academically although she has improved so much in that arena: she can read pretty well, (beginner well), she can count to one hundred and beyond, add and subtract. but the thing i notice most is how she sees someone she doesn't know very well and she says a cheerful "hi!" when she would have looked away shyly before. and how she'll sometimes even look an adult in the eye and tell them thank you. a whole bunch of little things that probably don't mean squat to anyone else, but to me mean that she's coming out of her shell, and that she's going to be fine out in the great big world.
here is a little plaque we made as a gift for sweet m.'s amazing teacher, mrs. d. she's been so good to m. this year i just didn't know how to thank her adequately. an all-expenses paid trip to the bahamas or caribbean was a little out of our budget, so this'll have to do for this year.

kid style

{twirling with the eyes closed}


do you remember what your style was like as a kid? was it something you ever thought about? what about your kids now, if you have kids?
i remember in fourth grade there was this new girl that moved in mid-year. she had clothes that i thought were so pretty, long blond hair that was always perfectly fixed, and these shoes that i really coveted, they had zippers. my style was more like sweet m.'s is now. kind of weird stuff put together, hair simply down or pulled back in a bumpy ponytail with lots of strands loose, and maybe the odd piece of kid jewelry. definitely lots of friendship bracelets. there was a certain point where i had so many they were about half way up my forearm! i thought they were so cool!
with sweet m. i usually try really hard to let her do her own thing, even when i think it turns out really crazy. the other day she wore a pink shirt with tiny hearts printed all over it, this checked skirt, and leggings with hearts printed on them. to complete the ensemble she chose her white slip-on shoes that have different color stars everywhere. pattern on top of pattern on top of pattern! but that's fun, right? right?
how much guidance do you give your kids in what they wear? do you pick out the outfits but let them choose which day to wear them?
just wondering. :)

fun, fun, funny in the sun, sun, sunny