Weekend happenings

Many years ago I read a book called "Up the Down Staircase." It is about a fresh from school teacher who gets a job working in a troubled inner-city school. In the book she asks her students to write an essay on the following quote by Robert Browning: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp." That quote has always stuck with me, and it came to mind again this weekend.

We bought face paint for Halloween. We didn't come close to using it all, so we have quite a bit left. Rachel managed to reach it, even though I had put it up high. Rachel firmly believes that her reach should always push the limits, and turns out she can grasp things beyond what I thought.

Anyway, she wanted to paint her face like a tiger. Artwork is Jeff's specialty, so he painted her face. He did a good job too.
Gabi is my good eater. (Rachel is most certainly not my good eater.) Gabi pretty much eats, or at least tries anything I put in front of her. She is so not picky (at least not yet) that she is willing to help Scout finish his food. This morning Gabi found this empty cool whip tub (I keep in the bathroom and use it for bath time) and wanted to wear it on her head. She got it firmly in its place, then joined Scout for his morning meal. I captured the moment.

Another "First"

Rachel has had a lot of "firsts" lately. First day of primary, first day of school. Well, in that spirit, today was another first. Today was Rachel's first snow day. It wasn't a huge snow fall, but the snow did fall lightly pretty much all day. We had fun playing in it.

Rachel had fun throwing snowballs, and Harley (our visiting dog) was the primary target. She got me a couple of times too.

Gabi discovered the joy of eating snow

School

Last fall I called a local preschool to look into enrolling Rachel. At the time Rachel wasn't quite potty trained, and the school offered only one class for children that were not potty trained, and that class was full. So I decided to just wait a while longer.

Fast forward to Monday. I decided to call the preschool again to see if by any chance there were any openings. I didn't really expect there to be, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, and anyway I could get a head start on the fall. Turns out, however, that there was in fact an opening as one little boy moved away.

Anyway, long story short, I enrolled Rachel in preschool. Today was her first day. She was very happy to go, but was not overly expressive of her excitement. Of course I had to take a few pictures to memorialize her first day of school.

She is saying "cha cha cha."

I dropped her off, and she was just fine.

When I went to pick her up she was very happy to see me. The teacher told me that she did great, that even though all of the other kids had been there since September, she fit right in and did not miss a beat.

Here is her art project from today. The teacher spelled her name wrong. Rachel also came home with a bunch of brightly colored pieces of pasta. Not sure what that's about.

Here is Gabi on Rachel's first day of school.

First Day of Primary

Today was Rachel's first day of primary. She is a sunbeam (the 3-year-old class). She wore her Christmas dress that she got from her great-grandma, and for shoes she wore sparkling pink shoes that she got from one of my piano students.

Gabi dressed to match. Her dress was a gift from her grandma, and she got the same sparking pink shoes from my student.
As we got ready for church this morning, the girls were so happy wearing their dresses and their sparkling shoes, they were as cooperative as I have ever seen as I took their pictures.

Merry Christmas to All

Last Friday was our ward Christmas party. Apparently we have good connections, because Santa Claus came for a visit.

Rachel with Santa

Gabi with Santa (not a huge fan)

The family with Santa (everybody looked good in this picture except for me)

I looked better in this picture, but the girls, not so much.

Wishing all a wonderful Christmas.

Message from Santa Claus

I found a fun site where I could have Santa Claus sent Rachel and Gabi a personalized video. It was free (my favorite price).

Message from Santa for Rachel

Message from Santa for Gabi

Messiah Sing Along

Last night Jeff and I went to a Messiah Sing Along. We've gone most every year since we've been married. We sing the entire Part I of Messiah, and then we end with Hallelujah Chorus.

Speaking of Hallelujah Chorus, I'm sure most everyone has seen some version of this rendition of that great masterpiece, but just in case you've been living under a rock for the past decade, here are the Silent Monks performing it.



I first saw that about 10 years ago or so when I played the 'cello for a Living Christmas Tree program that is done yearly at a Baptist Church here in town, and they did this. I don't know who came up with it, but apparently every Baptist Church in the United States has done it, at least according to YouTube. When are we Mormons going to join the fun? My favorite is the short person.

Snow

Saturday brought snow. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to cover the ground and to build a snowman. Not all snow is good for packing, but this snow was the best snowman building snow I've encountered in a very long time. We bundled up the girls and took them outside to play in the snow. They had a great time.


Jeff and I had a little snowball fight. I accidentally hit him like three times in such a way that the snow got down his collar and onto his neck. I blame my poor aim. The snow was sticking to my gloves and that threw off my motion.

A Scare

(I started this post last Wednesday, but I'm finally getting around to finishing it.)

This morning started like any other. I woke Rachel and Gabi up at 7:30 so they could see their daddy before he went to work. Everything was fine until about 9:00 when I was getting Rachel her breakfast. She reached up to get a box of cereal, and suddenly cried out. I was standing right next to her, but I didn't see what happened. I thought maybe she bumped her head, but I couldn't see how that could have happened. I held her and tried to comfort her, but she wasn't acting like it was getting any better. I realized that whenever she moved her head or her arms she cried out in pain. I looked at her head where she was holding it, but I couldn't see anything. I started to get scared because she was not getting any better.

I called my pediatrician, and they asked me to bring her in. I had to get her dressed still, and she cried out as I helped her put her arms through her sleeves.

We got to the doctor, and she laid on the examination table, holding her neck/head, and not moving at all. (Very unlike her.) The doctor examined her, looking for indications of meningitis, and did a throat culture to look for strep. Both were negative. He concluded that it was a bad muscle spasm. He gave her a dosage of children's Motrin, and told me to to continue to treat her with children's Motrin and a little heat for the rest of the day, and call him after lunch. We got home, but the Motrin didn't seem to do much more than barely take the edge off.

I fed the girls lunch and put them down for their naps. Rachel never did act like the pain was relieved. I called the doctor back and told him that she did not seem to have any relief. He told me to check after she woke up from her nap, and if it was still painful he might order x-rays.

Sure enough Rachel was still complaining of pain after her nap, so I took her to the brand new children's hospital for x-rays. (The only good thing about the day was that I finally got to check out the new children's hospital. I drive by it all the time when I go to Costco, but before this I never had the opportunity to go inside.) The x-rays were negative, so that pretty much confirmed that we were just dealing with a bad muscle spasm. I've had plenty of muscle problems in my neck, but I thought Rachel was too young for that kind of thing. I thought it was reserved for old folks like me.

The next morning Rachel was definitely better, but her neck was still bothering her a little, but that was the last time she complained about it. It was really scary for a while, and I'm very grateful to my mother-in-law who helped me out by taking care of Gabi while I took Rachel to the hospital, and fixing dinner, and cleaning the kitchen. I also appreciate my VT companion who saved me from having to take the girls into the cold with one suffering from a very painful muscle spasm to buy children's Motrin. She picked it up for me, and I really appreciate all the help.

Anyway, all ended well, and Rachel has been just fine ever since, but I'll tell you, it was not a fun day!

Thanksgiving/First Snowfall of the Winter

We have had a very dry end of summer and early fall. It has really only rained 3 or 4 times in the past four months or so. The rainfall has started to pick up finally, though, and it rained all day on Wednesday, and all day yesterday (Thanksgiving). I'm really glad we got the rain. Really I am, but seriously, couldn't we have spread it out a bit more over the past 4 months?

Overnight the temperature dropped even more, and we woke up to a light covering of snow on the ground. Rachel was ecstatic. She remembers snow. As soon as she realized there was snow outside breakfast was forgotten, and she got her winter clothes on, and she was outside. I don't think Gabi remembered the snow, but she was enthusiastic about getting her winter duds on and going out in the snow herself.


I gave the girls blueberries with their lunch. Rachel is to the point where she can eat blueberries without getting the stain everywhere. Gabi, on the other hand . . .


For dessert after dinner we had leftover pie that I had made for Thanksgiving dinner. I made both chocolate and pistachio pies. They were good. Gabi couldn't shovel it in fast enough. She needed both a fork and a spoon to get it in her mouth as fast as possible.


Rachel was all about sharing.