Playing, Catch-up

We've been a weird combination of incredibly busy and glued-to-the-sofa immobile around here for the last few weeks. We all caught that "virus that's going around" and were laid up for a week. On either end of that we've been running around, visiting, making stuff and going to cool events. I finally participated in an ATC trade posted on one of my yahoo groups. The theme was Spring, and I had spent a good deal of time making one, before finding out that I had to send out 6! So, while I was magazine mosaicing the remaining five, Lillian was keeping me company and making pipe cleaner animals and her own magazine mosaics.

my first ATC- water color and cut paper , and the mosaics before they were cut into cards Lillian's Diamond in a Mine and Plant on a Nice Day mosaics and pipe-cleaner Iguana (it may be a chameleon, not sure)

Right before Easter we went to Corduroy's 40th Birthday party at a local bookstore at Luca's behest. Luca brought his Corduroy and Lillian made it a birthday hat to wear to the party. We listened to various Corduroy books, visited with Corduroy himself (the six foot tall man in a suit variety) and had sprinkled cupcakes. Luca was beside himself with JOY!


We also have a new addition to our household (well actually six if we're lucky). No, I'm not talking about another dog, although that has crossed my mind recently... We have a little house Wren that's made her nest in our old pond filter on the shelves in our carport. The shelf is only about 3ft. off the ground (which means it's cat accessible) and it's right next to the door so we've been having to be really careful coming and going for the last week and a half. She's got 5 eggs and as far as we can tell she's been able to keep Milo at bay, but when the chicks hatch we'll have to McGyver some cat deterrent apparatus.

The nest and below where it's located. The fish filter is behind the white plastic seed bucket.

Oh, and onto the most recent news, we went to a book signing/talk with Lillian's favorite author Mo Willems, responsible for such classics as Don't let Pigeon Drive the Bus, Pigeon Eats a Hot Dog as well as My friend is Sad and Knuffle Bunny. We've been counting the days to the signing and pre-ordered his new book (whose title was undisclosed) . He was very entertaining and funny, gave a pigeon drawing lesson, a reading and answered questions. When a little kid asked why he wrote a new pigeon book he answered with a deadpan delivery "We're renovating our house". We waited in line to have the book signed (which, by the way, is titled Pigeon wants a Puppy) talked with him a minute and snapped a quick picture. I asked Lillian to scootch in a little closer to him so I could get them both in the frame, and commented "I don't think he bites" and ended up getting a pretty cute picture!

That's going to be it for now, gotta go play Scrabble with the kids before they encase themselves in scotch tape.

What Lillian's Been Making

model rocket at the park


clay squirrel, nest, and tree

hand-sewn pillows and blanket for Barbie

found object/sand sculpture in driveway

femo

Lillian looks just like her Just Like Me doll!

Luca's Birthday (a.k.a. fun with sand and mud)

Luca's 8th birthday was on Wednesday and he had one heck of a party! There was pokemon trading, playmobil city-making, train driving, cake eating, present opening, watergun fighting, mud-slinging (not as in our current political variety, I'm talkin' the real wet dirt stuff!), sand dam construction, tree climbing, lake wading, skate boarding and foos-balling going on. He was surrounded by his bestest friends, new and old and as well as young and old (refering to myself as the latter).
Lillian and Lucy had a fabulous time in the mud from the hose overflow (at the watergun filling station) and Rob and I had a fabulous time sharing conversation, and later drinks, with the parental units. I guess I shouldn't say that, since Rob had a great time hanging out with almost 2-year old Oscar and I have to say that I had a blast with the 3 year olds, lucy, pippa and Harry, I had very nice conversation with Stella who turns 5 this week and her brother was nice enough to explain to me why you can't take a clear photograph of a computer screen. He also took many very cool photos of the party (including one of his own backside-that's talent, I say!) but, alas, they won't be posted here because of a mishap yesterday with the camera involving aforementioned little sister and Glenlake creek. Anyone got an old digital camera w/video to donate to a really talented 8-year old photographer/filmaker?
By the end of the day we had gone through 2 cakes, a dozen cupcakes, a gallon of ice cream, as well as 15 pairs of pants, and several shirts. When was the last party you were at where there were concurrent baths taking place in the bathtub (for fun and cleansing purposes) while merrymaking was going on elsewhere? Come to think of it, knowing the people who'll be reading this, please don't answer that question!

Adventures...egad

Sunday all of us went to Pickett's Mill State Park to hike the trails, at the invitation of a fellow homeschooler working her way through "60 hikes within 60 minutes of Atlanta" (I think that's what it's called). Rob and I figured it would be a good way to work up to our hike to the Len Foote Inn on Friday. And although we got lost on the way there, arrived late and seemed as though it may start to pour at any second, we ended up having a fantastic time! We hiked miles of beautiful trails, some wooded--winding and steep, others wide and passing by vast wheatfields and meadows.
Pickett's Mill was the location of a Civil War battle and the visitor's center had an interesting collection of Civil War artifacts. While hiking the trails we saw several excavation pits in the location of supposed civil war camp sites. Cool, eh?
The nice old lady at the information desk asked where we were from and I realized that Lillian was wearing her Gettysburg sweatshirt and Luca his Martha's Vineyard! I swear I didn't do that on purpose although *smile* we can't help that we're northerners!
With our new acqaintances we discussed technology, the TED conference, genetics, religion, homeschooling and Roald Dahl while the kids ran the trails, made fairy houses and discovered all sorts of cool things with their new friends Forest and Phoenix. Needless to say, there's another invitation going out for Luca's Birthday party!

Well, we were sort of on a roll and decided to keep up the outdoor play by going to Glenlake Park on Monday to run around and splash in the creek with Kimba, Taran and Lucy. The weather was warm and we ended up bumping into other friends there. Luca's friend Kai caught a salamander and Kimba packed a lovely picnic. All was right with the universe until "cherrybomb into the creek" started. It was just a pretend thing, but Lillian's hop turned into a slip, a fall on the bottom, a blood curdling scream. She came out of the creek and I caught a glimpse of her foot and saw A LOT of blood. I guess she didn't realize she was bleeding, so when "oh my GOD" slipped out of my mouth she really freaked out. She was flailing so much I couldn't see the cut and she wouldn't let me wipe it with a alcohol swab, so I wrapped it in what I had (a sanitary napkin and Luca's t-shirt) and headed home to get Rob, which was on the way to our dr.s office.
Our doctor, who is wonderful and matter-of-fact, said that it wouldn't need stitches as it was a puncture wound and needed to drain. They cleaned it up, but since Lillian's foot (and entire body!) was caked in clay she would most definitely need a tetanus shot. Thus, round two of Lillian's wailing "I'm gonna die!". We calmed her and I had already explained the whole tetanus thing to her before, but the problem was that she couldn't get a regular tetanus booster as she had never had the original vaccination as a baby. I knew the drill and told the Dr. that we would need the Immune globulin instead. She went to go look it up in her book as they don't usually deal with these kinds of things (unvaccinated kids). Well, she came back and told us we would need the Immune globulin : ), BUT they don't carry it there. They were checking with the pediatrician next door to them to see if they had any. Nope. The health dept. Nope. After about an hour they located some at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta. They gave us a prescription for antibiotics and sent us to the CHofA Emergency room.

Lillian was happy to go to Children's Health Care because of the "great time" she had there when her appendix burst. We actually ran into one of her old nurses, who had been a real emotional lifesaver for Rob and I at that time.

We ended up waiting for a short period and had to explain the situation to several nurses. No, we don't need urgent care, we need a shot. No, it doesn't need to be x-ray'd for possible debris. No, it doesn't need to be irrigated. Yes, we are sure it doesn't need stitches. They applied a numbing patch on Lillian's arm and finally got us into a room. After about an hour the nurse came in and said that it would in fact be two shots, the I.G. and a regular tetanus booster. I questioned her because when we chose not to vaccinate I vowed to get informed so I'd have this stuff straight in case something should happen. I was told by our previous pediatrician and read other info that the Human immune globulin is what needs to be administered and that the booster is only effective as a preventative. I thought they may be trying to get her vaccinated (which we had already made plans with our dr. to do at a future date) while in the hospital, for 100% vaccination compliance is their mandate. They explained it was their protocol for absolute immune response for this cut and so we agreed. All Lillian needed to hear was that they'd be giving her two shots and she fell apart (Luca had a very bad experience with two antibiotic shots at an urgent care center that we all remember very well). Oh, and add to this that they planned on giving them at the same time, one in each thigh, and not in the numbed arm (just like Luca's infamous aforementioned shots).
Two more nurses and a Dr. entered the room and Lillian clung onto Rob for dear life. They didn't want to give her numbing patches in the legs because it would take 20 minutes or so to work and they were only topical anyway. We tried to get her to lay on the bed but she wasn't having it. One nurse had ramped up the energy level to such an extent that Rob had to ask her to be quiet so we could talk with Lillian. The crazy nurse then suggested we just leave the room so that they cold hold her down and get it over with , to which we said "no way". They ended up leaving the room and we found out that Lillian would stay still for the shots but REALLY wanted the numbing cream. We told the nurses who weren't all that happy to wait and they brought it in. I think by that point, having had a chance to calm down, Lillian agreed to just go ahead and get the shots while they were in the room. It happened pretty quickly and tear-free, and with the noticeable exception of crazy nurse. She got her dinosaur band aids and had her foot re-irrigated (ughh, although they let her keep the cool "squirt gun " they did it with) and we made our way back home. Now to the next challenge of having her stay off of it for the next 2 days!

Potholders anyone?

Lillian has been a potholder making dynamo for the past few days, thanks to the kit given to her for her birthday by Aunt Jaynie. We now, after surpassing our own potholder needs, have to come up with some alternate uses/projects for the loom. Barbie has a new very-warm and durable blanket, the dollhouse is on its way to receiving a fabulous new rug and maybe if the weather stays cool we will all be sporting the latest in kid-craft fashion-the potholder poncho. I need to go and google a place to get more loops, my girl's on a roll!

Happy birthday asparagus!

I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it's made me completely garden obsessed!
I've been pouring over my seed catalog and planning my spring plot, with hopes of having more success than last year. Even though I'd spent the entire week sick in bed (with Rob out-of-town the first part of the week) I threw on some clothes, over top of my jammies (of course), and slogged outside in the rain to survey the prospective site. After clearing some dead overgrowth and pulling some weeds, lo and behold what did I see? A lone asparagus spear, tiny and pink, peering up from the wasteland-that-shall-be-called-a-garden. I was overwhelmed with joy, even with the knowledge that since they had only been planted last year we wouldn't be able to harvest any spears until next year at least, more likely the year after. I did a little more clearing and found the original planting instructions, which I must have planted as well (maybe a misguided attempt to help the tiny rootballs survive their new environs, but alas, only potatoes have eyes!).
Well, I re-read the crumpled and soil-stained paper, and much to my surprise it described the contents as a "two-year old asparagus root". Which means that with this past year in the ground my asparagus celebrate their third birthday! We can eat asparagus this spring! I ran in to tell the kids the great news and found out that "asparagus is yucky" and they will definitely not be eating it.
Before launching into some lecture on oh, I don't know, maybe trying things before hating them, or the virtue of seasonal home-grown veggies, I paused to reflect and remembered that I don't even like asparagus all that much. I usually buy it a few times a year to satisfy Rob as it is his favorite vegetable (the plants, I remembered, were actually a Father's day present for him). We're all deserving of our own likes and dislikes; we'll be ordering the carrot seeds that Lillian has chosen and the heirloom cukes that Luca said he'd like to pickle. And Rob will have his fill of asparagus (hopefully) until next spring.