Ouch.

Does having stitches twice by the age of four mean anything in the grand scheme of things? I sure hope not. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.



I have never had stitches and neither has Ethan. Allie has made up for both of us now. Yesterday she was climbing on something she wasn't supposed to be on when she lost her balance. She fell on the corner of a filing cabinet. I kind of thought she would just have a bump on her head but then she pulled her hand back from her hair and it was covered with blood! It made me sick to my stomach. Thanks to my neighbor K. coming over, I was able to take her to her dr. right away where she got five stitches.

Sigh.

That actually was the end of the story, but then shortly after we got home I started getting sick. It looks like Ethan and I both have the stomach bug that's going around. When it rains, it pours . . . right? But to be honest I am just so grateful that this is what it's like when it gets bad for us. I mean, we are seriously blessed when we compare ourselves with just about anyone else on the face of the planet. We have access to good doctors, clean and comfortable living conditions, and the list goes on. I am very grateful.

Oh, as a side note -- while we were all convalescing last night we watched "The Last Mimzy". It was cute with the exception of one character; overall a fun movie.

Trip to the Lake

Back from our getaway and boy are we tired! Some good memories:

* watching my baby play in the sand for the first time




* high performance jet skis

* the kids loving their "jet ski"





* eating Sharon's good cooking

* the "s'manwich"

* watching Barry and Ethan pose with their "s'manwiches"!

It went by way too fast. I can't wait until next summer!

What's that?

Allison is a big helper to me; really she has been a good helper since she could walk. So the other day when I asked her to change her baby brother's diaper she cheerfully complied. Except this time she noticed something --boys and girls DO NOT look alike! So she asked me some questions about why Ryan looked different and I answered them without having to go into much detail (thankfully!)

I didn't think much of it until a couple of hours later when I got Ryan up for nap. As I opened up his diaper, I was very surprised to discover that *someone* had put a little ponytail holder around his "boy part"!

Little girls always want to decorate something!

Getting Crafty

I just had to show off some fun stuff I made with a friend the other night.

I've always wanted something to hold my recipe cards in place while cooking.

Our fridge has been overwhelmed with artwork, so now each of the kids will have a place just for their masterpieces. My little Picassos haven't seen these yet -- I may just wait and surprise them for Christmas!

It was a fun project. I got to use a sander for the first time (which probably would have terrified Ethan if he had known!) The art boards for the girls are pink and purple with polka dots.

Question for friends . . . what is your favorite craft? (If you can narrow it down to one!)

I guess we won't be on Good Morning America

I was giddy with excitement (okay, that word is really dumb, I know) from about 9:30 last night until 10:00 this morning. The reason? A new friend of ours invited our kids to come play on one of these : http://www.inflationcreations.net/rentalpages/funforall.html

Not only that, but their company is being featured on Good Morning America in a couple of days and they needed some footage of kids playing on one of their toys for the program! So naturally I was looking forward to this.

So we pull up this morning and my first thought was, Where are the Good Morning America people? We soon found out that they are far too busy to actually fly out and do and live shoot (what was I thinking?!) but our friend would shoot his own footage to send to them. Still okay, just a little disappointing. Since I will probably never go to New York and stare through the window during one of those shows I was at least hoping for an innocent walk-by while the camera rolled here. :)

As soon as they got the water streaming the other kids who had been invited were all over the slide. Allie and Emmie just stood next to me and held hands. To be fair, they were a lot younger than the other kids there and the slide was probably taller than anything they've ever played on.

Allie ended up going down one time at the very end of the hour but I don't think our friend was taping at that time, so . . . I guess I got excited for nothing. :) But I'm still happy for our friends to have this opportunity. This is actually the second time for them -- they rock!