Camping

Friday night found us on an impromtu camping trip.

Daddy tried to teach them how to skip rocks.

Kaylin couldn't grasp the concept.

This was the view from our campsite.

Kaylin found some worms.

We went for scooter rides around the trail.

The sun went down, creating a beautiful sunset over the lake.

And we roasted marshmellows.

And a fun time was had by all.

Water Field Day

Yesterday was water field day. I snuck away from school for a hour or so to go watch, and got these GREAT shots of the girls.

Life has been very busy last week and this week. I'm ready for a night where we have nothing to do and I can stay home all night. Yeah, right. That'll never happen.

Kaylin;s First Tooth!

Originally uploaded by jenhiggins11

Kaylin lost her first tooth tonight! It's been lose for a while. Tonight I had my newspaper staff over for our annual end-of-the-year picnic (of course it rained and our air is broken so everyone was crammed in the kitchen with a fan blowing) and their favorite babysitter Carlie was there. She told Kaylin she'd buy her and Macy a Webkinz if Kaylin would let her pull out the tooth. It took a while,but then it popped out!

Kaylin first had a huge smile on her smile, then the tears started and she sobbed. It was starting to bleed a little, so I had her rinse her mouth out, and then no more tears.

This child has the smallest mouth, and her teeth are JAMMED in there. Major dental work ahead for this beautiful girl, but tonight we will relish in the fact that she lost her first tooth!

Crazy busy weekend...

Friday night I was in charge of Macy's Girl Scout Lock-In. Imagine 12 8-year-olds in a church gym all night. They finally went to bed around 2, got up at 7. They did a scavenger hunt, a major dance party for hours, and just ran around.

Then the troop went to the Farmer's Market and volunteered for a couple hours. Then 3 grad parties...I was tired last night!

Today we had one more grad party and we cleaned up the house. We had to finally turn the air on.

And this morning Macy woke up to find out that the big crab, Smiley, moved into his new shell overnight! He looks much more comfortable now. She was so excited!

Coloring in her sleep

Many of you have heard of Bobby's sleepwalking/talking/acting out things in his sleep habits. If you haven't, ask me sometime. They are pretty funny. Apparently his children have picked up this habit as well.

Last night Macy fell asleep in my bed when he was at the fire station because she was "scared" (ie: she just didn't want to sleep in her own bed). I came upstairs a while later and was going to read for a little bit. I had the bathroom lamp on so I could see.

Macy sat up, looked at me and smiled. I could see right away that she was not awake. I said, "Whatca doing?" because it is fun to mess with them when they are sleeptalking. She smiled wider, and started tracing circles on the sheet with her finger. She mumbled something about "colors" and "rainbows" and "art class" and "flowers". That's all I could get. I said "Oh, are you coloring me a picture?" She nodded very firmly and mumbed something that sounded like "Yes, it's for you" as she continued to draw on the sheet with her finger. I let her continue for a minute, then made her lay down and go to sleep.

Nice to know that while they don't look like Bobby at all, at least they inheirted something from him.

** My foot is ok. She said it was a stress fracture, but that the radiologist needed to confirm, and I haven't heard that confirmation yet. She put me on crutches, which lasted about 5 hours. Now I'm just wrapping it tightly, wearing tennis shoes for support, and walking slowly. It feels better, though. I'm not sure my wrapping this morning would pass Bobby's EMT test, but it worked.

Weekend re-cap

Friday night Bobby's shift went out to the Ameristar buffet, and I believe I got my money's worth on the all-you-can-eat-crab legs. I may or may not have gone back four times for more crab legs. My hands may or may not have hurt from all the cracking.

Saturday I ran 3 miles (more on that later) then the girls and I were lazy in the afternoon. I spent some time researching how to tell if a hermit crab is dead, only to discover he might be moving into a bigger shell. Then I became Mom's Taxi carting them all over town for different events.

Yesterday was church, then I had to make a bunch of desserts and such for the Girl Scout Mother/Daughter Tea Party tonight. Bobby got called in to a fire that ended poorly for the house and the owner, and didn't get home until almost midnight.

This morning I woke up not able to put any weight on my right foot, and I have a doctor's appt here shortly for x-rays. The nurse at school said it's probably a stress fracture. Joy. I was going to run the Hospital Hill 5K in June...probably not now. I'm pretty irritated about it.

Pet Count=5

Originally uploaded by jenhiggins11

We are outnumbered.

Tonight two hermit crabs joined our lovely household. Macy was promised hermit crabs for her birthday (cough in December cough) and I found this wonderful 10 gallon fish tank for $2 at a garage sale on Saturday. So tonight Smiley and Bugs Bunny joined our household.

They are quite active already, which is a good thing. No one wants to just stare at them and not watch them move. Smiley is quite a bit bigger than Bugsy, and i hope he's not a mean bully. Macy put a lamp next to them so she could watch them while falling asleep. She still says she wants to be a vet when she grows up...we'll see.

Just adds more craziness to our house, which is already pretty crazy. Never a dull moment at our house.

Thoughts from the NICU

Last week I flew to Baltimore to visit a dear friend of mine. She adopted a baby who was born at 29 weeks and has been in the NICU at Johns Hopkins for 6-7 weeks. Her family is back here, and she was very lonely and homesick. We had a great visit; lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, pedicures, and lots of time sitting in the NICU.

It was sad in NICU--very sick babies, in need of major medical care. There were probably close to 40 babies total. And more than that--babies with parents who don't visit very often. Ronna pointed out babies whose parents she had NEVER seen in 6-7 weeks, and I wanted to scoop them up and rock them for hours. I understand there may be circumstances I'm not aware of, but seriously--how can you leave your tiny baby in NICU and never come visit?

As I usually do, I gave the babies around Isaiah nicknames. Snorty McSnortason was next to him; he was actually a full-term baby but still needed to be in NICU. He made strange snorting noises when he cried, which was often. His dad was obviously a first-time dad, and my heart broke watching him try to comfort his son when he had no idea how to do it.

Chicken Baby was on the other side of Isaiah; she looked like a baby chicken.She was also very pale, and both her parents were African-American. Hmmm....

Cat Girl was on the other side of Snorty; she was tiny, and when she cried she sounded just like a cat meowing. I was happy to see her parents come to visit the last night I was there.

Lung Girl was on the other side of the room, and I named her Lung Girl because that girl could CRY like no one's business. Usually with one arm out of her blankets flailing around. 

This morning, both girls ended up in bed with me and Bobby because of the storms. I was squashed between the two of them, who kept rolling around and throwing elbows into my head. But I just laid there wide awake and drank up the moment--my girls are healthy and strong, and they are home with me. I don't have to stay at the Ronald McDonald House while my child goes through a clinic to learn how to eat.  My two-week baby doesn't have tumors filling her chest and face. My kids were able to come home with me from the hospital, and didn't have to stay in the NICU.

I am so thankful and so blessed.

Mom's Day, as Kaylin calls it

Had a lovely mom's day today. All the mom's got a rose at church, then we went to the firestation for lunch. Bobby was working, and all the men fixed a wonderful lunch of shrimp and pork tenderloin for us. It was nice! Then I sort of got a nap--interrupted many times about a puppet show downstairs, then off to dinner with my parents. The girls actually went to bed easily for once, which was really nice.

My present is "in the mail". I wonder if that means the same thing as the check is in the mail?

I received two wonderful cards from the girls. I wasn't allowed to look in their backpacks all weekend.

Macy's:

Thank you for loving me! thank you for letting me have pets. I love the way you take me on trips. Thank you for driving me everywhere. You help me when I am sad. Thank you for being our Girl Scout leader! Also I love the way you take me to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. You are very nice. You let me have awesome birthday parties like you let me have a pool party two years in a row. You help me get ready in time for basketball practice. You pay for me in dance. You also cook my favorite food! You are always there for me and I love you!

Wow...couldn't get any sweeter, could it?

Kaylin's card:
Thank you for loving me. Thank you for macing cooces for me. I love my mom. Thank you for taking car of me. Happy mom's day.

And a wonderful Happy Mom's Day to all of you!

Spring 2010 Dance Routines

I'm tired of fighting Blogger to embed the vidoes in the post, so I'm just going to do this.

Click here to see the girls' dance routines Spring 2010 There are 4 videos I just added--Macy has three, Kaylin has one. They are labeled.

I'm mad at myself for not videoing at the recital, so these are in class after recital. They are off--you can tell. They were better at the recital.

I'm off to Baltimore early in the morning, so I will be MIA all week.

Kk's new haircut!

Kk's new haircut!
Originally uploaded by jenhiggins11

Kaylin and I took advantage of Macy being gone today to do some girl bonding--garage sales and new hair cuts! Her new hair cut is more dramatic than mine, and looks very cute on her!