Like Mother, Like Daughter

Oh, the excitement of Dress-Up Days for Homecoming.

Today was Decade Day at the girls' school--dress like your favorite decade. I immediately thought of the adorable pink poodle skirt we have upstairs, and so Macy tried it on last night to alleviate issues with Grandpa in the morning. We paired it with a cute pink t-shirt, a white shrug, and pink saddle tennis shoes. She looked a.dor.a.ble.

"No." She looks down at the skirt, full and bouncy, not skinny and tight,  then back up to me. "What if I am the only one wearing this?"

"It's okay. Everyone will be wearing something dress up, from a decade. This is just what we have. You look so cute!"

"No. I don't want to be the only one wearing this. I don't want to stand out. I don't want to be the only one in my class wearing a skirt like this." She said through tears in her eyes.

I discussed at length with her it shouldn't matter what other people think, she is beautiful and strong and confident and she can wear what she wants, so forth and so on. She refused, and picked out a safe pair of jeans with a camo top.

I was disappointed in her. Then I thought back to dress up days at my school--Monday is always pajama day, and I always wear pajamas. And I always get nervous--what if I am the only one wearing pajama's? I always feel uncomfortable in the lounge when there is another teacher not wearing pj's. Twin day? I'm so afraid my twin will forget to wear what we agreed on. One day a couple years ago, there were three of us that were going to wear pigtails. I was so worried they wouldn't wear pigtails, and I would be the only one in pigtails. That's when I realized she was just like me, and I no longer worried that she didn't want to wear a poodle skirt. She will be just fine. She will always worry about what others think, but that's not a bad thing.

Looking through the window

Macy was born in December, and so when school started that next fall, she was about 9 months old. We had had a wonderful summer, just the two of us hanging out, no little sister to fight with constantly. I hated having to go back to school that fall, but knew I had to.

Imagine my surprise one morning when I pulled out of the driveway, looked over at the house, and there was little 9-month-old Macy standing in her crib, in her warm footie pajamas, peeking her head out her blinds to wave at me. My heart melted. It became a ritual for a month or so--I'd get in the car, back out of the driveway, and look up at her and wave. She'd be there, with a huge smile, waving back at me.

Then, just like that, she stopped. Too tired to wake up that early, I guess.

Imagine my surprise when last week, I backed out of the driveway and looked up at the house. There was 5-year-old Kaylin, hair sticking out wildly from her head, perched on the end of her bed waving at me. I smiled, remembering the time her older sister did that, and waved back. She hasn't done it every day since then, but several days since then she's been there waving.

That is the best part of my day when she does.

Itchy red bumps

Kaylin was sick Sunday and Monday, but by Tuesday was feeling much better. Bobby stayed home with her both days, as he was off work. He called me Tuesday on my way home:

"Kaylin has a doctor's appt. at 4:30. I think she has chicken pox."
"WHAT?"
"She has red bumps all over her body and they itch. They look like bug bites, and according to Source X,Y, Z, it's chicken pox."

So I drove home, got Kaylin, and went back to the doctor. We arrived about 10 minutes before her appointment, and per instructions, went to the back staff door. They did not want her going in through the front waiting room. But they didn't have a room ready, so the nurse told us we had to wait in our car until the room was ready. Since it was a nice afternoon, we sat outside on the sidewalk, watched school buses drive by, and she attempted to write in cursive.

After about 30 minutes, we were instructed to not touch anything and walk straight back to our room. I had to leave Kaylin alone in the room to go up front to pay our co-pay. I'm surprised they didn't put us in a padded cell.

After ALL that--it's not chicken pox. And they are not entirely sure what it is. Our doctor conferred with another doctor, they ruled out several long complicated names, and ultimately decided that it was her body's reaction to the virus she had this weekend. Much like how some people break out in hives. If the rest of us get the bumps, then we are to go back. Otherwise, she was cleared to return to school today.

And that was my Tuesday night. Crazy!

Wow...something to think about

I came across this blog and I'm going to copy/paste some of what he has to say below. You can click on his link to see the full text.

 

 

In a culture that has become increasingly noisy it is not surprising that the correlative affect is that many people are simply drowned out by the noise. And therefore, in the process, this drowning out has a transforming affect on our relationships with one another. My father, who is not anti-technology at all, simply said to me, “I’m afraid we are losing our ability to be fully present to one another.”

Recently I’ve noticed some of these things I see around me, and I cringed, realizing that I do this quite a bit as well:

 

1. Parents playing with their kids on the playground while talking on the cell phone
2. A group of friends eating together, yet all looking at their phones and texting/Twittering, etc
3. Sitting with our spouses on the couch, yet constantly looking at our phones
4. Talking on our phones after we pick up our kids from school
5. Not moving away from our devices to focus on someone who has come to talk to us
6. Talking on the phone while ordering food, or buying groceries at the checkout
7. Worshipping in church, yet more concerned about what’s going on at other churches via Twitter
8. Checking email, FB and Twitter messages last thing at night, or first thing in the morning
9. Not having definite boundaryed times of no device use in our homes
10. Glancing at our phones while on a date with our spouses, or significant others
11. Constantly updating/texting during a game or concert
12. And on, and on, and on, and on……

I’m not sure if we are bored. If we are impatient. Or if we are simply just not happy with who we are, therefore, we are constantly casting the net outwards, seeking affirmation, hoping that someone will notice us.

  
This weekend when I was leaving my grandmother’s funeral, an elderly gentleman pulled me aside to not only say something about my grandmother, but more specifically about my grandfather. He said, “Your grandfather had the ability to make the person he was talking to feel like the most important person in the world.” I want people to feel that way after talking to me. To feel that I was fully present with them, and that they were the most important person in the world to me….not the person on Twitter who is not standing right in front of me.

 

His words hit me--I'm guilty of several of the things on his list. His words there at the end were especially true--I want people to feel like I really listened to them, that someone was the most important person in the world to me. But I also want to feel that in return--I want people to listen to me as well. I hate feeling like what I am saying is not important, and so many people make me feel that way.

 

Just something to think about on this rainy Tuesday.

Festival Named for an Outlaw

Yesterday was a local town festival honoring a "famous" outlaw. The parade is always huge--over a hundred entries, usually. The girls rode on the dance studio float.

Here's Macy and some of her dance friends--Paige, Josie, and Makayla.

Kaylin with some of her friends from school--Kaylee, Jessa and Ava. I worry about this little spirited child. Macy has such a great group of friends, and Kaylin just hasn't quite connected. She can make friends with a light pole, but sometimes she gets shy and hasn't figured out how to connect. Sitting by these girls for a couple hours helped, and hopefully will help at school as well.

After the parade, Macy had a dance performance. We (both sets of grandparents plus us) barely made it in time, and I did not get good pictures (or a video-ggrrrr) of the performace.

Here's my pretty girl... not only is she beautiful, but so smart, responsible, helpful and considerate too. You should have seen her today at lunch--taking drink orders, filling lemonade glasses, handing out napkins. So cute.


Macy and one of her best friends Paige.

Macy, Paige and Kaylin on the potato sack races. $3 a ride= CRAZY. This carnival was very proud of their rusty rides.

Overall, we had a nice weekend. Bobby's dad was in town, and we stayed busy. Ready for another busy week!

Scavenger Hunt

To help with team-building, and to have fun after a stressful deadline, I sent my newspaper kids on a scavenger hunt in the building today. It was great fun. Here's some of the more obscure ones:

Take a picture of the car in Parking Spot 242 w/ the number visible
1994 penny
Purple crayon
Blue headphones
Take a picture of Melissa Cole, Miss Peppy 1997’s brick out front
Post-it with Mrs. Harvey's signature
Picture of EVERY team member going down to the slide on the playground
Team member’s picture next to the shoe in Mr. Gates’ classroom
Whatever is in locker #’s 9, 74, 510, 982, 1001, 535, or 685 in the men’s auxiliary locker room. Bring me one. Leave the others.
Bottle of Victoria Secret lotion
Blue m&m

I did learn one main lesson--SPECIFY if you want them to bring the item back to you, or if a picture of the item is okay. And SPECIFY if printing a picture off the Internet is okay. Those high school kids are tricky.

Where can YOU fall asleep?

I've blogged before about Kaylin's nightime habits,and how she and Macy could never share a room.

Here's proof:

How she fell asleep Wednesday night: (Ignore the sheet off her her bed. It doesn't like to stay on for some reason)

And how she fell asleep tonight.


Oh, and she told me the capri's she has on makes her look fat. Please, child, you have 0% body fat. You barely weigh 40 pounds at 5 1/2 years old. NOTHING is going to make you look fat.