Girl Time

Erin's school was canceled again today because of flood waters over some of the back roads.  Since the buses couldn't reach all the students, school was canceled.  Jeff had a playdate with a buddy from school.  They've been looking forward to this for a while, so he spent the whole day there.  That gave Erin and I a chance to have a girls days.

We started by heading into the gym.  Mommy did some cardio, and Erin got to hang with the big kids in the kid zone.  After the gym we headed to her favorite restaurant for lunch.  That's right.  We hit Red Robin.  She even got her own freckled lemonade :)  I'd been spending the morning trying to think of something really special and girly we could do.  I finally decided it might be fun to stop and get our toes painted.

I went for the full pedi since it's been 6 months or so since I've had one.  Erin got to sit in her own fancy pedi chair next to me.  They turned on the massage and got her a drink.  She picked out a super bright bubble gum pink nail polish.  The woman also put some cream and buffed the bottom of her feet.  She felt like a little princess.  She just giggled and giggled.  Since mommy's was taking longer they offered to paint her fingernails too.  Same bubble gum pink.  When they were dry, the woman came back with some other colors and put little flowers on her thumbs and big toes.  Talk about making a little girl's day. 

It was so great to be there with my baby.  Watching her still be a little girl but growing up a little.  And basking in some special time with mommy - who was glowing from her special time with her big girl.

Forehead Aches

My sweet girl has been suffering from what she calls "forehead aches" recently.  Actually she's complained about them for a little over a year but recently they've been getting worse.  Sometimes they seem to hit her when she's overtired or we've been too busy.  Sometimes they just come out of what seems like nowhere.  The last few we've had to deal with have been whoppers.  They wake her up in the middle of the night.  She's crying and shaking and just wants to be held.  Sometimes a cool cloth on her head helps.  Usually, I'll give her some Motrin and that will kick in after a while.  Unfortunately the last two have been so bad they've made her physically ill, and she's thrown up from them. 

Given all that we took a trip to talk with the pediatrician today.  She asked her all the questions a 6-year old could be expected to answer.  We talked about possible triggers.  Foods?  Dehydration? Family cases of migraines - (yes her Uncle on Mommy's side and her Aunt on Daddy's side)?  She got to stand on one foot and stick out her tongue and make some silly faces.  The basic neuro testing went fine.  We did decide to run a few blood tests.  This was her first time having to get her arm poked.  She was pretty miserable about it, but held nice and still.  She got a shiny band-aid and got to choose 3 stickers.  When we got home, she then got to watch one of her new Shirley Temple movies from her Oma. 

We'll find out more in the next day or so.  I'm going to talk to her teacher about bringing a water bottle to school and keeping it with her so she can drink from it throughout the day.  I certainly hope we're able to find out what's going on and make my little girl feel better.  We certainly hate seeing her hurt like that. 

A Visit to Narnia

Over the past months we have been visiting the land of Narnia. As a family we were all involved in the local production of "Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe." The show opened on December 4th and we just had our final show today, January 10th. This is mostly because we had two weekends of snow storms in VA that canceled shows.

Both the kids are familiar with the Narnia story (they were Lucy and Sir Peter for Halloween in 2008). So they were really excited to be involved in the show. Erin got to be a Christmas elf and Jeffrey was one of Aslan's guards. This was his first real show. He definitely had a blast with it. We certainly confirmed that he's got his daddy's goofy genes. He can really ham up a scene without saying a word. He also seems to be able to find his way on stage multiple times when he's not supposed to be there. But he was never overly distracting and said his lines nice and loud.



Both Tom and I were also in the show. Tom was the great lion, Aslan, and I got to be one of the head Christmas elfs. This was one of the few shows where Tom had to play the straight character. It was actually rather challenging for him.



Erin explained today that she is very sad that Narnia is over because she loves the show. I know that's true, but I also know that what she really loves is the people. That's what Tom and I really love too. It's an amazing group of people. An extended family for our kids, and wonderful friends for us.

Next stop . . .


Oz.

Skating

Last weekend we took the kids ice skating for the first time. Erin has been asking to go skating for a few months now (ever since she discovered "skating" in her socks on the hard floors). So Tom and I figured winter break made a great time to take the kids skating. I haven't been in years, neither has Tom, but we were both able to maintain our balance.

Erin was a little unsure at first. Jeffrey barreled off. The rink uses upturned 5-gallon paint buckets for the kids to skate behind. Jeff took off, using his toe picks to push himself along. Erin tried to glide more gracefully, but got frustrated at first. But after a while she really got it. Jeffrey, on the other hand, quickly got tired. Tom and I tried to skate with him holding hands, behind him with the buckets, etc . . . but he just wanted to sit at the side. Eventually we discovered we could sit him on the buckets and push him around the rink. He and Tom worked out a deal where Tom would push for 2 laps, then he would skate for 2 laps. He wasn't willing to do that for mommy.





Once Erin got comfortable in the skates she had a blast. At one point I suggested that maybe she didn't need the buckets. I figured we'd skate around to the edge and leave the buckets. Erin just stood up, and skated off. I had to gather up the buckets and follow her. Her moves were a little choppy, and she spent a good amount of time falling down, but she had a blast. And she didn't go back to the buckets. She skated for about 45 minutes without them. I'm so glad she had a good time.

After skating for about 2 hours. We waddled off the ice. Complained about achy backs and knees, and turned in our skates. Daddy treated everyone to some hot cocoa afterward. It was a great afternoon.