Smacking into the first day of summer

I’d planned for the first weeks of summer to be filled with fun and shrieks of laughter. Lots of running around the yard, making crafts, climbing around like monkeys. For the kids, anyway.

One of the monkeys will have to learn to clime one-handed.

Yesterday afternoon, we got home and Duncan got on the computer to skype Kevin. Berry decided she wanted a rest in my bed, so she climbed on in. Apparently she then wanted to blow her nose, so she reached for the tissue box on the bedside table. And reached. And reached. And fell off the bed, bumping her arm on the way down.

From the wails, I knew something was wrong. I calmed her down and found out what happened and put ice on the swelling bump. She kept the ice on for a long time and didn’t move her arm much that night. I was worried. My mummy senses had perked up. Something didn’t feel right.

We showed the arm to EMT Daddy on the webcam for his diagnosis. He gave me some things to watch for and I kept an eye on her until bed time. She seemed mostly OK, but was reluctant to do certain things – like pull down her undies to go to the bathroom.

This morning she seemed fine, but still had less of a grip in her left hand when squeezing my fingers. She was using her hand and seemed in no pain. But I called the nurse line anyway. And one of my favorite pediatricians was free at 9 a.m. So off we went.

On the way, she handled her snack and drink as if nothing was wrong. I felt a bit foolish bringing her to the doctor. But I just had a hunch.

In the doctor’s office, she played with a wire and bead toy with no problem. No sign of distress or soreness. The swelling had gone and there was no bruising. It was tender in one spot.

We got sent for an x-ray. It involved quite a bit of waiting:

And revealed the cutest bones ever:

In this second one (taken from the side) you can see a bulge near her wrist. That’s a greenstick fracture. Apparently her bone bent, but didn’t break.

It showed more on the computer monitor (this is a pic from my cell phone).

This is the result:

It stays on for 3 weeks. Hopefully. And then we go back for another x-ray to make sure it’s healed OK.

That was our exciting foray into the first day of summer. Hope yours is better.

Last weekend

Yes, I know it’s Friday. I had grand plans to do this on Monday morning but I must have done something crazy like worked hard all day instead.

But another weekend is upon us. So here’s the recap from last weekend.

On Friday, I was greeted with these two loves looking out for me from the play structure:

We were going to go swimming, but I had a horrible migraine, so we kept it low-key.

Well, other than the new way to climb into the car:

On Saturday, there was jumping in the basement (when isn’t there?)

There was also a lot of fun with with a water slide in the front lawn:

On Sunday, for some reason, we became obsessed with hunting for snails in the garden. We found a lot of them. I seem to have an eagle eye for spotting snails.

The kids were excited (especially when I found two attached snails who were mating). And so was I. Snails = chicken protein source. Duncan didn’t like the idea at all, however, and protested my plan to put them in a container to take home and feed to the chickens. Putting them in a container was fine, though. So we did that part.

Later, we went home, and had dinner on the back porch. There was watermelon eating:

And then there was singing:

I presume they learned the first song — along with alternate lyrics — at school.

It turns out that Duncan was right about feeding the snails to the chickens. Mostly because the chickens ignored them. They munched a couple, but didn’t go after them with the hearty gusto I expected. It was disappointing. I never thought I’d watch a snail escape:

This weekend looks to be a quiet one. I’d like to make it to the library, but everyone is coming down with colds, so it’ll probably involve movie-marathons and lying around moaning (the kids, not me). No promises on when you’ll end up hearing about it, though.

Enjoying moments of good weather (and other things)

It’s taken me until Thursday to blog about the weekend. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Pre-weekend for some reason, Berry ended up with a pirate eye patch.

Given the current enjoyment of the pirate eye patch and it’s appearance on Dora, Berry and even Minnie Mouse, I’ve decided that Duncan’s birthday party will be a Pirate Dora party. I found Pirate Dora invitations (online, free) which clinched the deal.

On Saturday, I took the kids to a park by the river (which we refer to as River Park, whether or not that’s its actual name. There was lots of playing and only one scraped knee. Unfortunately, my phone battery died shortly after arriving so I couldn’t capture much of Berry in her blue leopard print polyester dress. If anyone can pull that off, she can.

Duncan really enjoyed figuring out how this sand wheel worked.

Sunday afternoon turned warm and sunny, so the kids took advantage of the weather to run around in swimsuits and underwear.

This is what happens when you ask Berry to pose for the camera.

Finally, one of our projects over the weekend was to make house rules posters – for Adam’s house and ours. I interviewed all the kids, finding out what behaviors they don’t enjoy from each other, then phrased each one in a positive way. Asking for the behavior we do want seems like it might be more successful than simple saying what we don’t want.

There are nine rules. That leaves me an extra one for the thing I’m bound to have forgotten. The top “rule” is the Golden Rule, which is really what it’s all about.

Duncan’s dream

Fortunately, I spare you from the retelling of my dreams. Duncan told me a long and somewhat complicated dream this morning and then insisted that I write it down. Given that I had just woke up upon the first telling, I asked him to repeat it. Here’s that version:

Duncan’s dream

Did you know there’s those crab claws without crab claws> If you have your hands or feet or both in the water, those crabs grab on.

So I called for Cole. He said, “I’m here.”

I said, “Where are you?”

He said, “I’m in the cave.”

I didn’t want to go in there because there was a bear in there and I was scared. And then the bear woke up and he chased Cole out of there. Everybody ran away.

And then somebody came and turned the water into sand.

And then we went inside that thing where you can dance where there’s a trampoline. And it has that picture that you’re going to dance on and it can change into a different picture if you’re going to do a different dance.

Berry did her noisy dance so that’s why there’s a trumpet making noise.

And I did my squid dance. Actually, jelly fish dance. And that’s why there was a jelly fish and a normal fish right next to it.

Cole did his booby dance so he went like this: booby booby boo-by, booby booby boo-by.

And we danced until the music stopped. Berry went around in circles and around in circles and around in circles until she got all dizzy and then the music stopped. They heard her say she got all dizzy and so they stopped the music when she said, “I’m dizzy.”

So then, everybody untapped the picture so whoever did their dance, we gave it to them.

And now the bear is friendly. He just didn’t want anybody to have dirt. The person who had dirt, he didn’t want to come in. But now he’s friendly and he’ll let everybody in his cave.

The End.

The continued adventures of Duncan and Berry

Life continues on here. We’re looking forward to a long, if busy, weekend. It’s Emma’s birthday party on Saturday afternoon, followed by a family dessert birthday affair on Sunday evening. In between, I’ll be interviewing a potential summer babysitter and hopefully looking at a place for mum after we move this summer.

I’ll miss our back yard. But I won’t miss mowing it. And, as much as I like being environmentally friendly with our push mower…oh, my back doesn’t so much. Not with all the rain we’ve been getting and the resulting super-long grass.

Fortunately, kiddos often don’t seem to need all that much space. And Adam’s back yard is bigger than what we had in Rochester.

Here’s Berry enjoying some time outdoors with the T-ball set (in our yard):

From 2010-05 May

Not to leave Duncan out, here we are at church, having a pre-talent-show cuddle a couple of weeks ago:

(The dress was part of my costume.)

Duncan makes a movie

Duncan loves my Droid. I can’t blame him, so do I. He also loves Dora. What better way to combine his loves than with a video featuring some of his favorite things?

He also has a habit of wandering off with my phone, taking pictures and videos of seemingly random things. I found this video on my phone. It’s a little dizzying, but it’s so Duncan.

The other day at bedtime, Duncan (or Nanny, I’m not sure which) put an eye patch on Dora. She was already wearing a tutu from Berry’s baby’s outfit. I think a Pirate Dora movie is in the works!

And, just to prove how much Duncan adores Dora, here they are together having a nice cuddle at nap time.

From 2010-05 May

Lots of videos of kids dancing

If you don’t like watching two adorable children dancing around multiple times to the same song, stop here.

Kevin sent the kids a CD of a song he thought they’d like. I honestly don’t know who the artist is. Yes, I’m getting that old any lame.

In any case, the song is a hit with the kids. They love it. They dance to it at home. They decided to dance to it at the church talent show last weekend. And, by magical coincidence, they got to dance to it at Chuck E Cheese a few weeks ago at a friend’s birthday party.

Here are there performances.

Chuck E Cheese:

Church rehearsal:

And a bunch of clips from last weekend, including a bit of their actual church performance:

And, while I may be musically lame, I’m still technologically proficient. Shazam on my Droid tells me the song is I Love You by Michael Franti and Spearhead.

Clearly, I’m not very good at this

You haven’t heard from me in a little while because are lives are too busy to tell you about them.

Seriously, life is full. So here’s a quick synopsis in photos and videos.

The weather is warming up nicely and we’ve been enjoying lots of time outdoors. What better place to drink chocolate milk than on a little bench outside?

From 2010-04-April

From 2010-04-April

On Saturday, the kids were delighted to be invited to a school friend’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. Me? Not quite as delighted. No-fun-Mummy isn’t really a fan of Chuck-E-Cheese. Apparently, the kids have picked up on this.

When Duncan and I were talking about the upcoming birthday party (he was so excited he was shaking) he asked who was going to take them there.
Me: I’ll take you there, Duncan.
Duncan: But Mummy, you don’t like Chuck-E-Cheese?

I dropped them off, made sure they were settled in and knew to stay with the birthday girl, then ran an errand at Target next door. Then I returned in time to watch them eat cake, do some dancing to one of their favorite songs and generally maul Chuck-E when he came by.

From 2010-05 May

On Sunday afternoon, we had a friend from church over for a play date. This allowed her mom and Nanny to go to a house concert. It allowed me to get a taste of 3 children, ages 3 and 4, for 4 1/2 hours.

After lots of running around the backyard, feeding chickens, playing T-ball and making pretend food, they succumbed to this (it’s Dora, of course):

From 2010-05 May

We all survived intact. And now I’m into another week at work, which is incredibly busy as I’m covering for a coworker who is out sick and I’m on deadline for our donor news magazine. It’s ever interesting, just incredibly packed full of things to accomplish.

I took my kids to work today

In celebration of Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day, I brought Duncan and Berry with me to work before taking them to school. I figured I could last an hour of them running around the office, raising a ruckus and reducing productivity.

After Duncan was born and while I was still on maternity leave, I brought him into my office once or twice. Everyone loves a baby visit and is quite happy to stop what they’re doing to ooh and ahh over your little one. A 3- and 4-year-old? Well… actually, everyone was very nice and friendly and pleased to see little people running about.

First we stopped at my office, mostly to get my mug to get a cup of tea. Then it was off to Adam’s cubicle to explore his plants and unicorn trapped in a jar (what you, don’t have one of those?).

Berry “helped” the plants by moving some soil around:

She also uprooted a tomato seedling. And played with other co-worker’s toys:

(Duncan has Minnie Mouse because it’s mammal week at school and they can bring in “mammals” to share – Berry has a unicorn, Duncan has a mouse).

We went upstairs to take a tour of the main Foundation office (which they found unimpressive until they saw the executive director’s office which they immediately ran into and ran around) and then back to my office for some coloring:

Then it was time to herd them to the car to take them to school.

A weekend of spring

The weather turned lovely for a few days. Truly beautiful and springlike.

So we went outside and enjoyed it.

My mum took this one — Berry was tired and pouty, so she lay down on the grass and may have fallen asleep there:

From 2010-04-April

This weekend we went to Hendrick’s Park on Sunday to enjoy the weather. Swinging is always a favorite sport:

The kids also enjoyed a good pile on. Berry wanted in on the action, too. I was relieved to see Sam pile on top very carefully so he didn’t squish any small people:

This rock apparently was made to be a recliner:

And when it came time to go home to cook dinner, Duncan needed some persuading. He wanted to keep playing:

But we returned home to an outdoor dinner. This photo doesn’t capture the beautiful golden light settling over the back yard. But it was lovely:

Here’s a video mashup of our Hendrick’s park outing, with video by me, Adam and Sam: