Fractured

This has really not been a good month for my little boo. A battery of tests to confirm a peanut allergy which remains unconfirmed, eye exams, and now her precious Lola has fractured her elbow. Poor little girls. Miss Lola just does not want to accept that she is a little bitty 3 pound puppy and not the 30 pound menace she wants to be. I really hope this isn't the beginning of a very expensive trend with her. I took the first one with my Iphone while we were waiting for her meds (and the bill...yikes!).
Is she pathetic or what? Thank goodness her pain medication has some sedative in it too because she isn't allowed to sleep with Cotton until she is fully healed and she hates her own kennel.

Pumpkin Patchin

Definitely not the best pictures I have ever taken by far but what can you do under a beautiful cloudless Texas sky at 1:30 in the afternoon? Absolutely nothing but enjoy every minute throwing technicalities into the wind. The weather was positively spectacular and we all got big pumpkins for the kids to carve while I had a couple sessions to shoot in the evening. Here's my dad videoing us all on the hay ride which was really an elaborate scheme to drive us through the Christmas trees. What a dirty trick!

C did not want to be on top of this hay bail.

Our "other" daughter...

Fun with knives...don't worry they were supervised...sort of.

The finished products. T carved L & C's exactly as they had drawn their faces and let the older girls carve their own. They are in no particular order, but I bet you can't guess who's is whose! We affectionately refer to the last one as the "P.O.W" or Pumpkin of War. Much artillery went in to creating it (of the b-b variety, of course)!

The time has come

and also gone. These pics were actually taken last night when after flying up the street on his bike, C declared that he wanted the training wheels off. Hurray!! I had only come outside to let the kids know that dinner would be ready in about 5 minutes' time, but who cared now? Cold pasta is certainly a fair trade off to a training wheel-less bike so I ran inside and told T that his work would have to wait and he needed to come outside right now. And he did. C was so excited while daddy took them off, but as soon as we put him on the bike to give it a go, his mood was changed. Now he was afraid. All these people watching with anticipation was a bit more pressure than he was prepared for and the first trial run did not end well. I do not endorse quitting, but I also do not support undue pressure on a child so the decision to tell him that his training wheels would not be put back on his bike was not one made lightly. He is 6 years old, too old to still rely on them. We told him this while he ate his dinner at the same time informing him that the next day when he got off the bus we would try again. He was apprehensive but generally ok with the idea. As the evening wore on, he began to even get excited about it. So we will see later on this afternoon how he does when we take him to the park to try again.
This one was taken by M. Look, she even has my tilt down! I think I am getting a little teary-eyed!

Ok, here we are this afternoon with his game face on. No intimidation here.

Scoping out the territory, planning their attack...

And it was time to give it a shot...over and over and over again.

Definite progress was made. He has a ways to go, but I know he's gonna get there!

Swift

Yes it's another L post, but she was so determined while riding the scooter outside tonight to ride as fast as her little shoeless legs would take her.

One to the bike...

Whew, tuckered out. I can't really blame her, I'm tired (and a little dizzy) just from watching her go round & round!

Ahh, the sweet light. I hope she never cuts her hair short.

There's something different about her

Yep, there sure is and she loves it! We all know that won't last, but for right now she thinks her glasses are the coolest! The funniest part is that they aren't a necessity, but primarily for reading. Instead, she wears them round the clock. She did tell me that she took them off for picture day today though.

Larger than expected

How would you like this staring you in the face when you walked into your bedroom? When T "measured" the bay windows in the bedroom, he thought his new Bowflex would fit with "no problem" and not take up near as much room as I suspected it would. Who do you think won that argument? Obviously I was right but in the end, there it sits so he was declared the victor. How did that happen?
Or how about this in your master bath? This was supposed to be mine, but now it has no home. T is thinking about putting it in the office. GREEEAAAT! I can be working on proofs and feel guilty about not working out simultaneously! Does anyone else think that is slightly unfair?

What I really want is for my bedroom to be more like a retreat for relaxing and less like a 24 hour fitness. Even more, with what was paid for these items, I should think the weight should just come off without having to actually use them, but apparently that isn't the case.

Practice, practice

My gosh, has it really been more than a week since I posted anything on this blog? Wow. I have been really busy with work, but I truly didn't realize that I had neglected this one so badly! Today, I was setting the lights for a session and needed a warm body as a stand in. Miss L helped me out although one my senior girl got here and I saw that she was about 6ft tall to L's 49.5 inches, I had to laugh. Also ironic is that their names were the same so every time I addressed my L, I had to let my client know that I wasn't trying expecting her to clean up the mess in the kitchen...lol!


Another busy week awaits me, but I will do my best to try and grab some random shots to post here.

All things happen in three's

Call it a cosmic equation, coincidence, flook of nature, whatever, but I knew last night after we got M's pills under control (thank you Denise for your help with that one) and L was taken care of at least for the next two weeks while we await the test results and the next step is decided on that it was only a matter of time before my third would have some issue needing medical attention. At 6:10 this morning, it happened. He came into our bedroom and groggily we told him to go back to bed and wait for his alarm to go off. He replied that he couldn't because his bed was covered in blood. I knew it, the final variable to completing our own cosmic equation, C's bloody noses. This morning's was accompanied with a horrible cough and totally blocked sinuses and we made the inevitable decision to keep him home and take him to the doctor. But after a dose of Claritin and a few minutes on the PlayStation with his buddy who we were watching while his mom enjoyed her own terror at the dentist, he had make an astounding recovery only coughing a few times and his nose markedly more breathable. Let's rethink this. Today is only a half day and he is already dressed and has had his breakfast and the bus won't arrive for another 25 minutes, plenty of time to brush teeth and comb his hair into his signature fauxhawk. So we put him on this bus and pray that he can last until the bus drops him around 1:00 this afternoon. No pic for the day as of yet, I figured there was no need for a pic of blood covered sheets, the mental imagery should be detail enough for most.

Confirmation

Who knew it would be so complicated to have a simple peanut allergy verified? Maybe I should rewind a little. We have know that L was allergic to peanuts since she was about 18 months old and found out the old fashioned way; she ate it and broke out in a measle-like rash twice. Since then, it was something we just accepted and informed her of and that was that. Well, given the explosion of peanut allergies to varying degrees in the schools, they now require notice from a physician along with guidelines for treatment in the case of exposure. Ok, no problem. I call her pediatrician's office and request this to which I am told there is no medical documentation of this allergy and she will need to go to allergist to be tested. Huh? Seriously folks, rub peanut butter on her cheek and see what happens. But as a good mom, I call the allergist and request a skin test. No go, we have to have a consultation first. Ok fine, I schedule the consultation for today and off we go. After filling out a ridiculously in-depth, 9-page questionnaire and other necessary documentation, we wait to speak with the allergist who barely makes eye contact while furiously tapping on her keyboard. She orders blood tests first which is obviously safer than exposing her I admit, but the barrage of questions from L are what I dread. They begin immediately.
L: "How will they look at my blood?"
Me: "On a glass slide just like M has for her microscope."
L: "How will they "hold" it?"
Me: "You mean, how will they store it?"
L" "Yes."
Me: "In a test tube like on Dexter's Laboratory."
L: "How will they get it out of me?"
Me: silence. This is the question I do not want to answer so I change the subject immediately to the book she is reading until we are at the lab. Thankfully no one is waiting ahead of us. We go back with the nurse and she hesitantly sits down. Then she sees it, the needle. Oh no. Another nurse comes to "assist" (ie. hold down this hysterical 49 pound 8 year old). A few seconds and a Garfield band-aid and we're done. Though now she refuses to bend her left arm and is still crying that horrible pitiful, "how could you do this to me" cry. At this I am defenseless. Anything she wants, she can have and she knows it. Her demands are simple. A new Webkin like M got for her x-ray and hey, x-rays are a cake walk compared to needles and she gets to pick dinner. Luby's it is. Only thing is that daddy has to work late, M is going to her bff's choir performance and C is in PlayStation land so it's just the two of us which is surprisingly perfectly ok with L. We stand in line and she orders for herself like a big girl while the woman behind me makes polite conversation. But there is something in this woman's eyes that doesn't sit right with me. I notice there is no one in line behind her and she is ordering only one meal. We finish up, pay and sit down in L's favorite booth by the window and something is still gnawing at me. I see this woman gingerly carry her tray very slowly and with some difficulty to her table to sit alone. I think on it for a minute because I really wanted to spend some time with just me and L, but my heart is racing and I know that God is tugging on me. I can't stand it and I ask L if she thinks that eating alone is any fun. She says no that she thinks it would be lonely. So I ask if she were sitting along would she want someone to ask her to join them and she remembers the lady in line and emphatically says yes. So I walk over to her table across the dining area and ask her if she is alone and would she like to join us. At first she is confused and asks if I am sure. "Of course I am" I say, "No one should eat alone." She is so touched that she gets a little wet in the eyes ans asks for me to give her just a minute and I do given that I am too a little misty. I help her with her tray and she joins me and L for dinner and tells L all about her grandkids which are about L & M's ages and her daughters who are an accountant and a lawyer. L tells her about her harrowing ordeal at the lab and the woman, Charlotte, tells L of her stroke and frequent doctor visits and that she doesn't particularly like doctor's either, but that they saved her life and that they mean no harm. L is affected by this and decides not to hate them anymore. When we are finished, she excuses herself and gives L a quarter and tells her that in her day that was a lot of money to which my generous loving daughter says, "it is to me." My heart is full, we did the right thing and there is no greater gift than what we all feel right now. There was a reason that only the two of us went this evening and I am grateful for God's intervention.


Jello make everything better.
We ordered Daddy and C dinner before we left and so I took some pics of L in the warm sunset light while we waited. Her mood is decidedly different and I know that it isn't Luby's cuisine that has changed it.


If you are wondering if the Webkin part of her demands were met, have no fear; I am no reneger. After we picked up the boys' dinners, we went across the street (highway) to Justice and not only got one Webkin, but two AND a few choice articles of clothing. Dang those blasted "fun" cards!! So tomorrow she will go to school in new clothes from jeans and a shirt to everything underneath, but she will also be wearing a smile and the knowledge that she left a mark on someone's life and they on hers. All in all, a good day even with the needle.

An apple a day...

might keep this from happening to you. GRRRRR! My muffin will not eat fruits of any kind (not even popicles folks) and will only eat veggies under duress but draws the proverbial line at carrots and peas. She is all protein, all the time and you may be wondering if this is simply a battle of wills. The answer is on some levels, yes it is, but it is a battle that was waged when she was about 6 months old. That's right, 6 months old when she decided that fruits and veggies were not her thing. If we wanted to get babyfood jars of apples into her we had to mix it with chicken or ham. As a result she has frequent gastro-intestinal issues as you can imagine. Usually we can take care of this with fiber supplements and lots of whole grain products like white wheat bread, nutrigrain waffles and Mini Wheats but since discovery that she likes Honey Nut Cheerios, her fiber intake took a sharp dive. This caused her to become blocked...again and because of that she gets painful cramping and stomach aches which this time milk of magnesia was no help to her. T took her to the doctor this morning who ordered an x-ray to make sure her bowel wasn't obstructed and thankfully, it wasn't. He also prescribed Prevacid for her to help with the major indigestion she gets too though we think that is more a product of nerves than anything else given the fact that the only tomatoes she gets are in the sauce on her pizza. T took this shot with his Iphone for posterity, isn't she brave???
Tonight with the threat of bodily harm, she managed to gag down two and a half apple slices. I swear, I just don't understand the way her taste buds operate.

BFFs

This is M and her bff, R. With girls you never know how much time together is too much time together, but these girls have spent up to about five days together without so much as a cross word let alone an argument. They both have such even temperaments and get along fabulously. I love that M has a friend like her to share things with and it helps a great deal that she has been raised to have the same core values and beliefs as M. I suppose they wouldn't get along so well otherwise. With very similar tastes, they have matching pajamas, clothing, Webkinz, Build-a-bears, the obligatory bff jewelry and just for good measure, their eyes are very close to the same shade of blue.


Speaking of matching, I just realized that come Halloween, they will match from sun up to sun down with matching t-shirts & socks for school, matching (ok, not "matching" exactly, but the theme is the same) costumes and then matching jack-o-lantern pajamas for bed.