A Whole Bunch more Pics...

Twirling in her new polka dot dress...






Random cute shots.






Score... out for dinner at a place just after a birthday party wraps up! Balloons!





First sushi and use of chopsticks!



Caroline is finally warming up to folks at church. She made herself at home with Ayinka this particular Sunday, to Ayinka's delight! Ayinka had a cool phone to play with during church...



Several sleepy shots.




Look, Ma, no cast! Cast removed Friday, May 6th, just in time for our boat get-away! Hooray!


All caught up! Phew!

First Shampoo at a Salon!

Thought Lindsay was going to see a scarier side of C... as she is not a fan of having her hair washed. But... she's a smart girl and she quickly realized that this IS the way to get one's hair washed. She did great! And we can see her eyes again! Woohoo! Both of us were LONG overdue for haircuts.

First Protest!

Last Sunday we were grateful that our church worships at noon as we were able, therefore, to participate in a morning protest at the state capitol against a bill before the State Senate being called "Don't Say Gay." The bill would make it illegal for teachers or other public school employees (working in grades k-8 to talk about any sexual orientation other than heterosexual, under any circumstances. If a student were being bullied because s(he) was gay, can't talk about it. If a kid asks a question about someone having two moms or dads, can't talk about it. Etc. Etc. Ridiculous. Worth protesting. So we did. We met a nice mom with twin two year olds who joined C in decorating and then holding a sign.





Here's to a lifetime of witnessing for justice!

Easter 2011

The Saturday before Easter I decided to take Caroline to the zoo for an Easter Egg Hunt. Daddy thought he had drum practice so it was just the two of us out and about on a gorgeous spring day. When I first pulled out this dress to put it on her (first time ever worn) I said "Do you want to wear this pretty dress with Pooh and flowers?" She said with wide eyes "Yeah! Sure!" She likes to show off whatever she's wearing or about to wear to whichever parent is not dressing her (actually, she's taken to a dramatic, slow prance out of the bedroom to show off her style. Pretty hilarious.) When she showed the dress to Kev she said "Look! It's Pooh in a field of flowers!" No idea where she even heard the phrase "field of flowers" before... ah the mysteries... Anyhow... LOTS of other people had the same idea as us and we sat in traffic for a LONG time and missed the first 2 year old egg hunt. So we had lots of time to wander the zoo. While wandering we ran into some friends of friends and had some company for awhile. In the first pic here C is with that friend of a friend. Others were taken during or after the egg hunt. There was also a bounce house/slide set up which thrilled C... until she got in... and discovered the pain of hot plastic under bare feet. She went back in in socks a bit later, but that was the first meltdown in an entertainment venue resulting in removal from said venue that we've experienced. I remember once screaming in a haunted house at the state fair until someone came to take me out. It reminded me of that moment.





The next morning C opened a bag of goodies from Mamie and an Easter basket from us. In the Easter basket was a large egg with a small stuffed bunny, a lightning mcqueen toy cell phone, several jelly beans and small malted chocolate eggs, and a reeses peanut butter egg. There were also many small eggs each with a few jelly beans and one chocolate egg each. Our hope was that she would enjoy the contents of the large egg on Easter and then one small egg a day until they are gone. I wasn't at all sure that such self-restraint would be possible for her. But... we figured it was worth a try. And guess what? She is GREAT with it. She didn't consume all the contents of the large egg on Easter and the next day she took several small eggs and placed them back in the basket each time saying "This is for later..." One egg even split open and spilled and she restored its contents, put it away saying "This is for later..." She even put the clear ziplock bag with jelly beans (from Mamie's bag of goodies) away saying "This is for later..." She then pulled out the large egg and finished the half reese's peanut butter egg and other candy she hadn't finished the day before. And left the rest for later. And she has been GREAT about just having one egg a day ever since. Last week she got home from school and I was in my office, where her Easter Basket is stored, she came through the front door saying "My egg! My egg! My egg!" And came into the office with Kev, retrieved the basket, and chose her egg for the day... and never noticed I was in there... (Oh, and she LOVES her new cell phone... it makes sounds like it is taking pictures and she has been making us say "Cheese!" a lot!)





And lest it seem like we forgot and suggested Easter is just about eggs and baskets, we did attend two church services on Easter (and services Thursday and Friday as well!) And here she is just before church... hat and purse courtesy of good friend Ella! The bunny was in her Easter basket and the little notebook she's carrying was in her basket as well.






Easter evening we went to Brad, Heather, Ella, and Alistair's house, joining several of their other friends, for a lovely meal in their backyard. The kids had a blast together. Here's Caroline with a little boy who is very close in age to her.

On the second day of school...

...she fell off a hammock outside. And didn't calm down for 50 minutes. And was complaining of pain in her arm. And no one saw the fall... (quick look away on the part of the adult, we're not upset)... so a trip the e.r. was in order. I joined Kev and Caroline at the children's hospital after wrapping up a meeting, just in time to accompany them for x-rays. She was NOT happy about the x-rays. And apparently had not been happy with the initial manipulations done in triage. But as we waited in an e.r. room for word about what was next... she calmed down... and started using that arm again, bending it, reaching with it (this is her dominant arm). I thought for sure it couldn't be broken. Eventually someone said "The x-ray didn't show anything." Then someone else said later "Well, it didn't show a break, but it did show a lot of fluid on the elbow so we're going to splint her elbow, treat it like a break, until she can be seen by an orthopedist at the end of the week." She clearly had been in A LOT of pain, but I really had a hard time believing it was broken... especially when she'd put her full body weight on the wrist of that right arm without wincing... but, ah well, the orthopedist identified blood in the x-ray and suggested that was a sign of a break and casted it. She was totally unphased by the cast, save for using it as an excuse to resume loathing of bathtime.

Here's a self-portrait from our time waiting in the e.r. for word about what was up.


And here she is just after being splinted.


And in her dinosaur sling... she thought that was pretty great! At first, though getting her to leave it on at home was a bit of a challenge.


Because she was SO cooperative at the hospital we took her for a "special treat" (as she would say in her sweet little voice) afterwards. I took her to a bakery were there were all sorts of lovely chocolate delicacies. I thought for sure she'd pick a cupcake, but nope... she insisted on this... "lowfat chocolate decadence"... it was rather large... she was delighted.


We had a couple of special visitors shortly after this happened. First, before the cast, Katherine, a high school friend of Kev's, stopped by for an afternoon visit when she was in town.



Then a few days later she got her cast... she picked out the color... hot pink.


That night (Good Friday actually... penultimate Friday of the semester for me...) our good friends Matt and Jenn came down from Kentucky for dinner with us. Matt and Jenn are both musicians, but they also are experienced clowns. So they brought the makings for balloon animals to cheer the little patient. And she was thrilled with their offerings. We sure do love Matt and Jenn and are so glad that BOTH of them will be our (fairly nearby) neighbors so soon!


I was worried that the fall and break were going to turn Caroline off from her interest in school, but within three days of the accident she started asking "Are you going to drop me off? I want go to school. Drop me off." No hard feelings towards school whatsoever.