What goes with crutches?

A big cheesy grin?

Weiner Dog Races

On News8, they were showing clips of Weiner Dog Races in Buda this weekend. One of the dogs was partially paralyzed and was using a wheelchair for his back legs. Olivia saw him and said "Mom, look! A dog with training wheels!"

Olivia's Yahoo IM status

We got home from the movie tonight and she wanted us to play for a while before settling in to ready Harry Potter. Her game choice? Online chat and games via Yahoo Instant Messenger. She logged herself in, sent me a hello note, and then set her status..."kind a tird. will not talk long." And here she gets offended when I call her stinker!?

Here are a couple of pictures of her in her twirly dress today. She first came in wearing her new Easter dress, and was crushed to find out that Easter is next week. Then she found this twirly dress and was happy.

Sights from our weekend

We did a (really big) puzzle. Guess who picked the design?


She practiced jumping backward off the ladder into the pool. She would flip over underwater and swim back to the wall on her stomach.


Look at that form! :)


A shot of the missing tooth (teeth). Look how much her new front tooth has come down. The other front tooth is showing a little, too.

Million dollar question

We were working on spelling this afternoon and got down to the word "prettier" It confused her, so we spent some time working on 'y'-becomes-'i'-add-'er'. By the time we worked through that rule, she was fed up with spelling. Her next word was "should"

I read it to her in a sentence, and she looked at me, sighed and said "How do you spell should!?" Then she realized that it was a spelling exercise and started laughing hysterically.

A quiz about Mommy...by HRH Olivia

Interview with Olivia...
Cut and paste the questions and Interview your child.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
"I love you"

2. What makes mom happy?
me hugging you and kissing you (mostly just me and Daddy hugging and kissing you)

3. What makes mom sad?
When I disobey you

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
you tickle me (write a P.S. to say that I tickle you back!)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
nice and you had fun pretty easily

6. How old is your mom?
ummm....35...is that how old you are? (actually, she's off by a year)

7. How tall is your mom?
I don't know how tall you are. (guesses) five feet and eleven inches...wait, five feet and five inches...sorry! (she was right the first time)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
play with me

9. What does your mom do when you're not here?
have lunch and dinner with Daddy

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
being so pretty (awwwww......)

11. What is your mom really good at?
loving me!

12. What is your mom not very good at?
(with a big grin) not loving me!

13. What does your mom do for a job?
you don't have a job!

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
I would say spaghetti, I know you love spaghetti, which is good because that means we're twins!

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
being nice to me when you are tired and don't feel well

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
I think you like Tom and Jerry and since the mouse usually wins, I'd say you are the mouse.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
do bike rides and homeschool

18. How are you and your mom the same?
we both love each other

19. How are you and your mom different?
You have different color hair. Mine is brownish-blackish and yours is red.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
because you hug me and do all kinds of stuff that only parents do, like kiss me, and mostly only parents kiss me.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
he's sweet and kind

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
to her best friend's house

NASA

NASA day at the LBJ Museum, downtown Austin, 03/06/09.

Tut Tut!

We're off to see King Tut tomorrow! I'll take pictures! They won't allow cameras in the exhibit, I am sure, but I can get shots of the princess all excited to be there.

Wicka gets groomed

Look how happy she is to be brushing him!



Wicka, however, looks like he'd rather be elsewhere.

Olivia, the beauty consultant

I'm heading out to the store, and just had this conversation with Olivia:

Me: Do you want some lipstick? I have it in my hand.
HRH: Sure!
HRH: Are you wearing mascara?
Me: yes
HRH: You need that brush thing from TV that spins
Me: yeah, I know, my lashes aren't very curly
HRH: I mean the bottom ones. You have some top ones but not very many bottom ones. You definitely need that spinny brush.

Writing stories

Molly attake! Molly stares for a long time, and then...She attakes!!!!


She looks and she...Attakes!
PS. Die mouse, die!
PS. again...Poppy joins in!
OPD

I guess I don't have to worry about her vocabulary

Olivia was upstairs playing with Genius and he slapped at her or something. Whatever he did, it caused her to say "He's supposed to be my guard kitten, not my nemesis guard!"

Toothless Wonder!

9:45 p.m., February 6



She keeps the Tooth Fairy on her toes, always losing teeth right at bedtime!

The Princess's Room

The canopy doesn't quite fit this way, but it didn't work to put it at the head of the bed. I'm still thinking about that. We also have plans to paint a polka-dot border around the room. Maybe we'll do that this weekend.



I want one of these in my room!

Molly is a good helper

She is great at putting laundry away.



And her handwriting help is second to none.



It's exhausting being Molly the Helper.

Just born to it

Olivia is making a Valentine's Day card for Christian. It's very pretty, and she's decorating it with hand-drawn hearts and designs. I asked her how she got so good at card-making and she said, "I was just born to be good at art, Mama, just born to it"

Unclean! UNCLEAN!

While I was talking to Mom this morning, Olivia asked for an index card. This is why she wanted it...to write a note to Ms. Julie.

Feeling a little better!

Olivia seems to have some energy today! We have told her that she needs to lie around and let that energy heal her, not chase the kitties around and run out of energy. She still has a fever but seems much better this morning. She didn't sleep well last night, so she thinks she might take a nap this afternoon. And, it's supposed to be near 80 degrees today, so I think I will try to take her for a walk around the block to get some sunshine.

Max and I will be in a training class tomorrow through Sunday, but she will be in good hands with Julie Cormack. I will send her contact info so you can call HRH if you want. I have really struggled with leaving her this weekend, and wouldn't be doing it if she hadn't woken up feeling a little better this morning. As it is, we'll be in Austin, just 20 minutes away, so I am sure she'll be fine.

Pictures of the Princess, since she's here and you're there.

A couple of pictures for you...one of her on mandatory bed rest (I threatened to tickle her to get a smile) and the other is last week, with her "sitting stylish", as she put it.

The Princess is still sick...or sick again...

And her Mommy is worried. So is Daddy. And Memaw. She really needs to get well soon.

As of yesterday, she had been on antibiotics for 7 days for the double ear infections and sinus infection. We went to the mall yesterday, and she seemed fine. She was happy and skipping and chatty. We came home to watch the inauguration and she fell asleep during his speech. When she woke up, she was burning up. She went from feeling fine, having a normal temp, to spiking a fever of almost 102 in the span of 2 hours.

We took her back to the pediatrician (not our doctor, but one of his colleagues, since he is off on Tuesday afternoons) and her ears are still infected. Not terrible, but the doctor expected them to look much better (if not totally clear) after 7 days of antibiotics. Her eyes still have blue circles, which the doctor said indicate recent and/or continuing sinus infection.

Worst of all, she seems to have gotten a(nother) viral infection in addition to the bacterial stuff. Dr. Rice switched antibiotics from Omnicef to Augmentin, which she'll take for another full 10-day cycle, and ordered rest and fluids. We are going to be in a training class all weekend (here in Austin, thankfully) so she's supposed to go to Bill and Julie's tomorrow night to stay until Sunday. Mommy is having a bit of a meltdown, worrying about her.

On the bright side, I know that some of the other kids have had a fever and it was short-lived. M was here Saturday, then spiked a fever on Sunday. G said that it ran high for 48 hours then went away. I am hoping that HRH has the same thing, and will be feeling much better by this time tomorrow.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Olivia, dressed to go to the bookstore

As promised, here's the pic from earlier in the week when we went to Borders. This is Olivia with her grown-up purse.

Cursive

I hope this image is big enough that you can see it. This is HRH's handwriting sheet for today. Isn't it great!? We are using the Getty-Dubay italic style handwriting, so their cursive is a little different than "traditional" cursive. I like it because I think it's closer to the combination of print and cursive that most people actually use everyday, and the cursive letters look basically the same as their printed counterparts. Like the "z" above. It's much easier for her to learn to add serifs to the printed "z" than to make the loopy cursive "z" we are all used to.

But, I digress...the point of the post is to show off how beautiful her handwriting is. And how willingly and sweetly she did it. It thrills me to see her getting past her fear of writing.

Feeling better!

HRH seems to be feeling better today. I know she's still tired, and doesn't feel like her old self, but I can see improvement. The cough is becoming more productive, and she has more energy today. Right now, she's having a lunch of fish fillets, mac & cheese and peas, along with white-grape-peach juice. (p.s. per HRH, the mac & cheese does NOT taste good...not sure if it's a little stale, or if that's the phlegm talking)

We had one of those great homeschool moments today, so I have to share. You remember the handwriting dramas. The weeping. The gnashing of teeth. The whole nine yards. Well, we have finally started cursive. AND SHE LOVES IT!

Today, I asked her to do a practice sheet while I fixed lunch. I went to check on her and she had a surprise for me. She was doing a second sheet! Unasked! Because she WANTED to!

And she's very good at it. Her handwriting is so pretty! I am so proud of her for persevering through the printing, and overcoming her fear of doing it.

And now, a message from HRH herself...."I like cursive better than printing!" Yay, it's a happy, happy homeschool day.

Puny Princess

I have a puny princess on my hands. She had been sick with the viral infection that Max and I had, but was feeling better. Then, yesterday, she woke up feeling bad and slept for 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. She never sleeps in the daytime. This morning, she snuggled up to me for reading and brought a big blanket because she was freezing. She is never freezing. I got the thermometer, checked and her temp was nearing 100 degrees. A new fever on day 7 of an illness is never good, so off we went to see Dr. Spencer.

Turns out, she has sinus and ear infections. Yes, as in TWO ear infections. He said one was really bad, the other was just getting there. He was glad I brought her in because she could have been really sick within 24 hours. We got her there in time to avoid pneumonia and pink eye. Her right eye looks bad, but is not pink eye yet, and her lungs are still clear. I had no idea that you could get pink eye from infected sinuses. I figured they were separate germs, but he assured me that she would have had pink eye (and probably pneumonia) soon if not treated. He is a very calm fella, but really freaked me out with the talk of how serious this all is. And to think that it started 24 hours ago! This is a fast-moving germ.

So, she is on strict orders to rest and drink fluids. We stopped at the library on the way home and got her a big bag of books and DVDs to enjoy, and picked up 5 kinds of juice while we were at Randalls to get her Rx. Right now, she's wearing her J.Lo jammies, playing SpongeBob on Playstation, drinking apple cider. She did get to go outside for just a few minutes to use her new Klutz bubble wand and solution recipe that she got with her Borders gift card from Aunt Ronya and Uncle Jim, but is back on the couch now.

I'll send out updates as necessary. I expect her to feel like a different person by this time tomorrow, with 24 hours of antibiotics at work.

Blackberry

I forgot this on the last post...while I was fixing dinner, I was snacking on blackberries. Olivia came in the kitchen and we had this conversation:

Me: Hey, Olivia, you want a blackberry?
Olivia: OH! You mean a BLACKBERRY! I thought you meant a Blackberry cell phone, and I'm not old enough for a cell phone! I thought you were crazy!