New ATC's by Lillian and Me

It's been awhile since Lillian and I have done ATC's. We kind of got out of the habit and it was hard for Lillian to let go of her artwork at it's completion. But, we saw that this month's trade was blown ink and Lillian said she's been wanting to try that for some time (who knew?). Once again it was hard for my girl to let go of her awesome artwork, so she decided to send 1 and keep her two favorites for herself. She titled the one above, "Reindeer Night" and mine I titled, "Woman with Child and Dog" and "Butterfly". They were fun to do and Luca made some really cool black blown art images he's planning to frame and put on his wall (well, he's planning on me framing them and putting them on his wall).

Scary things

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I was planning on writing about Halloween, thus the title. But, upon thinking about it, the growth of my children is far more frightening. I know, I know. It's the most common thing other parents of older children offer when they see your frazzled nerves, your sleep-deprived expression. Time flies, cherish these days, they grow up so fast. They grow up so fast. I wish I had been calmer and more awake, so that I may have listened more closely and been able to truly heed the advice.

The days all run, one into another and turn into bygone months and seasons captured in photographs. My boy, who used to love to be carried, is donning safety gear and riding his bike on the skateboard ramps at a local playground. He's talking about his future honeymoon in Japan.

My baby girl, who grumped and beamed with all the energy she possessed, is getting tall and graceful. Her artistic vision and her steadfast confidence in herself stuns me. *I* have never been like that. My children are no longer the set of little us my husband and I assumed. An assumption based in our own joy and utter inexperience.

It's like starting a new job. I'm a bit thrown. All I thought I knew of these little people was just the beginning. The preconceived ideas and expected were a fabrication of my mind. I'm living with these really cool people that I barely know, but I want to know. I want to know more.

And it's weird to know as a parent that I'm not the one with the answers. They are the ones with the answers, if i can only ask the right questions.

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!