broken leg

Kitt broke her leg just over two weeks ago.  She was jumping on the trampoline with an older cousin.  Typical.  When I brought her into urgent care it was horrible. Due to being pregnant I was unable to be with her during her x-ray.  She FREAKED out, to say the least.  It took 3 people to pin her down.  Due to her experience in the x-ray room she was super wound up.  I held her hand and it still took 4 others to keep her still enough to wrap the splint.  They kept mentioning how strong she was.  They kept telling me to sing her songs.  At one point I did sing "the farmer and the del" but my singing voice is not the most soothing.  So I told stories instead.  That was also un-helpful.  After a half hour of crying she was just plain mad.  She was yelling things like "don't touch me ever again" and "get away from me".  I told her they were just putting on a band-aid and she glares right at me and says "I don't want a band-aid".  It was sad.

The 4 days in a splint were only ever so slightly better.  She couldn't put weight on it, leaving her without any independence.  I couldn't unload the dishwasher without being interrupted 8+ times (and I am not a slow un-loader).  She would ask for something she didn't really need and then add on in a sad little voice "I can't walk".  I had to do whatever she wanted.  At one point she insisted she wanted to ride her trike.  She was carried out on set on her trike.  She concentrated and tried and tried to ride that bike, then looks up and says "I can't do it".  

Now I have never broken a bone so I was imagining the entire healing process to be like this.  Not so.  We went in for her appointment to put on her cast.  I brought my mother with me (due to the horribleness of the last visit).  This one went WAY better.  My mom told stories (with props) and entertained the whole time.  She also carried her which kept me from the stomach cramps of the previous 4 days.  Kitt picked out a pink cast and was thrilled when the doctor offered to put sparkles on it.  Now she can put pressure on her leg and it doesn't slow her down a bit.  She is so much a happier.  A happy Kitt = a happy mom.  

Bahama Cruise

It has been a long time since we blogged.  Our main excuse has been that our camera has been having issues, but we got  new camera right before our cruise to the Bahamas, so now we just need to catch everyone up.  We went on a 7 day cruise with two of Robert's siblings, cousin and some friends of Robert's brother.  So there ended up being 6 couples and no kids!  However, I have to admit that I had a little bit of anxiety leaving the kids so long, since we have never done that before.

I really don't know where to start.  We ate so much food and enjoyed all the amenities that the ship had to offer.  We attended many of the nightly shows, spend time lounging around the pool, enjoyed our offshore excursions in the Bahamas and our one stop in Florida.

Our only negative experience was getting woken up early Easter Morning to a rocking ship.  We hit some stormy weather and the ship was really moving.  There were a lot of people on-board getting sick and I definitely was feeling it being 20 weeks pregnant.  Luckily it passed later that afternoon and we had smooth sailing the rest of the time.

After that one rough morning, I was ecstatic to get off at our first stop in Florida.  However, even most of the shops we explored in Port Canaveral seemed to rock a bit.  I turned to Robert in one of the shops and said "do you feel like we are moving?" Snorkeling was definitely a highlight and we were able to use our underwater camera which made it that much more fun.  Robert enjoyed posing for the pictures on sandy bottom.

Kitt is Two

 Kitt's birthday falls between Christmas and New Years.  So Pepper and I picked an un-winterish theme for her birthday party... so it didn't blend in as much with the rest of the holiday season. Rainbows.  We sang lots of songs, danced with rainbow ribbons and played don't eat Pete (color style).  

My Grandma gave me a pink felt crown (I sewed some red decor on it).  I decided to let Kitt be Queen for the day.  She took that role seriously.  It was fun.  I am going to make a crown for each of my kids to wear on their birthday.  I think a child (especially the youngest) deserves to be in charge, one day out of the year :)

outdoors and snacks

We have enjoyed being constantly outdoors.  Always searching for animal and plant life.  The kids only venture inside to get a snack but then they go back outside to eat it.  I love late summer.

summer

I am so glad that this summer feels like summer.  Last summer, not so much.  We spend our lives outdoors in the forest, lake, garden, pool, bikes, river, parks, ocean & zoos.  We have adopted popsicles and smoothies as our favorite snacks and eat them daily. Whoa it has been warm.  But no, I am not complaining. 

nursery

Kitt joined Tabor in nursery recently.  She waltzes right in without even looking back.  She is a social butterfly.  It is so weird going to church without a baby on my lap for all three hours.  It's been over 4 years since I have had such a novelty.  I am not really sure how to concentrate for so long. But I figure I will get use to it fast enough. :)

cousins

The kids love to be with their cousins!  More people to get into mischief with! We are so blessed to have such a large loving family!

I have been putting most of my posts on the "teaching toddlers" blog.  I need to find a balance between the two. Sorry. 

Queen Pepper

Pepper has been wearing around her "super fancy" dress and shoes.  She is fairly good about taking them off before our walks in the forest because she understands that we don't want them to get dirty.  But she doesn't understand why you would need to take them off before you go to the grocery store or the library... those are clean places.  Thus she wears them. Here she is on her green throne.

Ramp turned wild

I made a ramp to drive cars down.  But apparently the kids thought it looked more like a slide. Or maybe something to jump over.

Gramy's

 Pepper has had a year long obsession with "curly ferns".

It has not been our typical Seattle spring weather this year.  It has been super warm, with little rain.  We went on a hike and the kids did really well.  They hiked for over an hour without a complaint of someone being tired.  Pepper fell and scraped her knee at one point.  She thought she needed carried for a couple minutes due to her injury (didn't even break skin) but then she braved up and kept walking.  Afterwards we went to Gramy's where she made us root-beer floats. And the kids LOVED watering her plants.  They made her refill their watering cans over and over and over.

park day

Today was a park day.  We practiced letters in the sand, fed the ducks, waded in the water, threw rocks and then played on the playground.  The kids were super cheerful today.  I was super cheerful today!