Pony ride

She doesn't even need mom to stand by her any more

Johannsen's Farm 2007

Another 80 degree day in October. :-D

Kinder Keys

Grace started her Kinder Keys class last Thursday. She said she really loved it and wanted to go again the next night. Fortunately for me it's only one night a week - Thursdays.

On the way home she was feeling slighted. She asked me, "How come I don't have a piano?" And, "How come everyone has a piano except me?" Here we go! She evidently feels that she's underprivileged. It's easy to understand why. (Can you hear the sarcasm in my tone?)

But, seriously. I think I'll be taking her out to buy her a keyboard tonight. I did not know a single thing about piano class before this. I've never played, nor has anyone in my family. So, my initiation was during the first class. The instructor did say that she'd like them to practice between classes. Keyboards aren't that expensive, so I think we'll go ahead and get one. If it doesn't work out, we can donate it or something.

Take me out to the ballgame

Go White Sox!

Kevin & I went to the White Sox game Saturday. They won 8-7 against the Twins. It was a great game. They scored two home runs in the first inning. Comiskey (or whatever they call it now) looks very nice. It's a lot better than what it was the last time I was there. They've made some good improvements.

We won these tickets from Kevin's work. Grace spent the day with my sister-in-law and neices at the lake house. We got a day pass on the CTA so we could take the el all day. We grabbed the el to U of C to visit my Dad for a little bit before visiting hours were over. After that, we took it again and headed over to Lincoln Park. We went to Oven Grinders for dinner and then headed for home. It was a great day overall. We didn't get home till about 2am. And we got to sleep in too! Yay!

September 10 - don't forget to fly your flag

My dad was released from University of Chicago late yesterday. I mean REAL late. He wasn't home until after 11pm. Yesterday was Sunday, for Pete's sake. I honestly had given up the idea that he was going to be released when I left the hospital at 7pm. It's hard on my Dad to be there.

Evidently, they did a CT scan yesterday and found a mass on his right lung. He has an appointment tomorrow to follow up with a pulmonologist at U of C. We'll see what they say.

Other thoughts for today:

• Don't forget to fly your flag tomorrow in memory of those we lost on September 11th.
• Today is a family funeral for Dorothy Beckett. I'm sorry I wasn't able to even make it to the wake. She had not been well for a long time. I'm glad at the thought of her being restored. Life can be so cruel at times.

See. Grandpa is firing on all 4 cylinders now. He's had 2 heart procedures in 2 days. Let's hope this keeps him out of the hospital for a while.

Family room silliness.

Live from University of Chicago Hospital's heart unit family waiting rooms. Dad is recovering well and we are slap happy.

She's not so timid anymore. We went to the Renaissance Faire yesterday and she decided the ponies weren't her speed. Instead she rode the camel. TWICE!

She also decided she wanted to try another amusement. They had trampolines you can jump on while connected to a harness connected to bungee cords. She must have bounced two stories high. She was about 98% thrilled and overjoyed and 2% terrified. Her face was priceless. I wish I could have caught it on camera. I'm afraid my Palm camera isn't enough to catch that.

Thoughts for today

I was looking at some of my friends' blogs and I realized they don't use their names or their children's names on their blogs. Upon that realization, I felt a wave of fear wash over me. Have I made a huge mistake with this blog? Am I putting my family at risk?

Fear is a big topic in the news this week because of the tragedy at the Virginia Tech campus. It's being called a massacre. I don't know what to call it. It's a horror for the families, that's for sure. I'm not going to comment on it out of respect for them.

I've been watching The West Wing series on DVD. I'm several years late watching the series. It's an excellent show. As I see President Bush comment on Virginia Tech, I find myself wishing that President Bartlet (the character from West Wing) was our President. President Bush lacks conviction and eloquence. He has little to no ability to inspire confidence from me. (He did it once on 9/11. I saw conviction and I believed him.) He's no more than a talking head. For Pete's sake, Mr. President! Extend SINCERE condolences to these families. Reach in you and find your voice!

Local boy grows up and does good

One day, I was at my brother's house. I overheard him telling our sister that he wanted her to read a book he had that was written by a guy who had grown up in our home town. The story was set in our home town. Naturally, this piqued my interest.

So, I borrowed the book from him. I read it. I was expecting it to be lame and only interesting to people from our town. But, it wasn't lame. It took me back to things I had forgotten about. A trip down memory lane. And the main character brought to mind Holden Caufield. I thought he was decent example of an unreliable narrator.

Anyhow, that's way more technical than I intended this post to be. My point in bringing this up was that I had a chance to talk to this author the other day. It was cool. His name is John McNally. I took the opportunity to tell him where my brother and I guessed he lived to see if we got it right. (We did.) It's nice to hear that someone from my area is doing well.

Just a thought

I was just thinking about global warming. I've been told that one of our concerns is that our polar caps are melting, thus increasing the size of the oceans, and decreasing the size of the surrounding continents. And, the idea is that we are making them melt with all of our industrialization. Bad us.

When I thought about it further, I thought about the Great Lakes and the area in which I live. I went to a college named Moraine Valley. There are Moraines all over the place here, which are basically areas that were supposed to have been formed by glaciers. Glaciers that melted, right? That was a long time ago, before we were industrialized.

And weren't the Great Lakes formed the same way? From Glaciers long gone? So, is Global Warming really something we have control over? Or is that just arrogance to believe that we really have control over it?

Just a thought. No answer.

Snow

Remember back in March, about a month ago, I said Winter was almost over? Well, we had some accumulation of snow today. I was pretty shocked when I looked out the window this morning and saw snow covering everything. It was only an inch or so, but I didn't realize it was coming. It has been cold, and we have been having flurries for a while. But I did not realize we would get anything like this. Quite the shocker. Yikes!

Work

I'm working 4 days a week now. I was released for a 6 week trial. I have to see a neuro psychologist for some memory testing in the mean time. I'm having some problems remembering things. Recall, short term memory and multitasking are problems for me. I haven't made my appointment yet, so not sure when it will happen.

Ansel Adams

Grace has asked for a camera for her birthday. I was relaying this information to her Auntie Val. As we discussed kids cameras being either very crummy or very expensive, I commented that we probably shouldn't worry about quality because she probably will not be taking Ansel Adams photos yet.

I was reminded of a series of photos she took with our digital camera of which we (particularly her Dad) are quite proud. It's an action series. Of poop. Yes. That's right. Poop. She was evidently quite pleased with herself, so she photographed her accomplishment in the toilet. Then again as she flushed it, and again as it went down the drain, and again, and again.

That's our girl.

The magic wand

My friend Lori gave Grace a magic wand. She sent it in the mail. It's quite fancy. It lights up and makes a little sound, like "ta da de daaa." Very princess-y. Grace loves it, naturally.

That day, we were in the bathroom brushing Grace's hair. I was sitting on the toilet and she was standing in front of me. She was playing with her wand. She was waving it around in circles and mumbling some things. I couldn't really hear what she was saying. I continued to brush her hair and put it up in a pony tail.

Suddenly, Grace turns around and taps me on the head with her magic wand.

"Darn." she says.
"Did you try to turn me into a toad?" I asked.
"Yes." she replied.

Let me tell you, it was not easy to hold back the laughter.

Easter update

It was a quiet Easter here. Grace was sick for the entire holiday weekend. Just a fever and runny nose, but it started when I picked her up from daycare and continued until she woke Sunday morning. She missed out on the Easter Egg Hunt at The Children's Farm where my Dad volunteers. It's a bad event to miss. They have a lot of fun activities. She didn't even get to see the Easter Bunny this year. Poor dear.

Ambidextrous?

Grace has yet to select a hand preference for writing or drawing. She swaps hands willy nilly while writing or coloring. It's comical to watch. It's like watching your chef prepare your dinner at your table at Benihana. All seamlessly. Flip. Switch. Color. Switch. Color. Switch. Color. Flip. Color. Switch. Color. I'm begining to wonder if she's going to stay that way. I'm not going to make her choose.

Adventures in house hunting

Kevin and I have started to look at model homes. We're in the very earliest stages of planning. The twinkle in the eye, so to speak. Ideally, we'll move right before Grace goes into kindergarden so as to cause the least amount of disruption to her life as possible. But, sometimes my plan and God's plan are not always one and the same, so we'll just see how it all goes. The idea right now is to learn the new home ropes and see who is who and what is what.

The main thing is to get us into a ranch style home. I can't live in a house with stairs any more. I'm walking fine today, but there was a while there I was not and I don't need to be unsafe in my own home. As a mom, I can't risk not being able to access all the exits or laundry or whatever. So, that's the motivation. Wish us luck.

Went to the movies

Went to Hollywood Blvd to see Wild Hogs on Saturday. My sister had Grace and my neices for a sleepover, so Kevin and I went to this local theater for a date. This theater is different because it's adult only - they have tables in front of each seat and have waiter service to serve food and drinks (alcoholic ones too) during the movie. It's pretty cool. The food was not very impressive. The movie only had one star from the Chicago Tribune, but we laughed really hard at it. I liked it a lot. It seemed like a lot of people were laughing a lot too - so evidently the Tribune critic is a little stuffy.

Winter is almost over

Yesterday we had record warm weather. I think the high for the day was about 73°. Maybe it was 74°. I'm not sure how high -- I just know that it was pretty warm . Grace and I went out on a bike ride with the neighbor kids. I was pretty impressed with how far grace could go. I think we rode our bikes for about a mile. Not bad for a 3 1/2 year old kid.

Grace does pretty well on a bike too. We bought her the bike at the end of last summer. She didn't have much time to practice on it before the weather got cold. She never did figure out how to use the brakes last year. She seems to have the hang of it now.

Wow! I can talk to my computer

I just got my new Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. It's really cool. It lets me type by talking to a microphone. It's still pretty new so it makes a lot of mistakes. It's supposed to get smarter over time and make less mistakes. I'm typing this post, using the software. Once I get good at it I should be able to do a lot of things completely hands-free.

Pretty cool huh?

Diary

Grace has a new diary. She couldn't find it the other day. She yelled to me from another room, "Mom? I can't find my diarrhea book!"

Grace's first dentist appointment

Grace had her first appointment February 21 and she did great. Her teeth are close together, so they did x-rays and everything. She loved it. I'm glad it went so well. I did the pediatric dentist route, and they recommend that you wait in the waiting room, so I did. It was surprising at first mention, but it makes sense when you think about it.

I'm guessing since her baby teeth are already close together, and both her dad and I had crowded teeth ... we'll have an orthodontist bill in our future.

Valentines day, ruby slippers and the Easter bunny

Let me tell you a little story. Grace is obsessed with The Wizard of Oz since she first saw it. She asked Santa for it months after she saw it, and got it. She asks to watch it every chance she can, tortures all her friends with Wizard of Oz fantasy play, and so on.

She was telling me that she was hoping the Easter Bunny would bring her ruby slippers for Easter. Some days I would spy her meditating while looking at the DVD cover, repeating, "I wish I had ruby slippers. I wish I had ruby slippers." Exaggeration? I'm not that clever.

On Valentines day, as we were almost ready to leave for daycare, she asked me, "How come the Easter bunny didn't come?" Evidently, she had her holidays a bit confused. I briefly explained and dropped her off at daycare.

Fortunately for me, I still had not picked up a Valentine for her. So, since I now realized she had hoped for her ruby slippers to arrive on Valentines day, I get to be her hero and buy her them. And we all lived happily ever after.

My rookie mother story

Right around mid January Grace had croup, but I didn't get a chance to post my funny rookie mother story about how we found out she had it. I woke in the middle of the night to this horrible sound coming from her room. So, I went running in her room to find her sitting up in her bed, eyes watering, and making what I think sound like gasping for air noises. I ask her if she can breathe (Rookie move #1) and she shakes her head no.

The panic begins. I run to her, turn her around, and start applying my feeble and untrained version of the Heimlich (sp?) (Rookie move#2) and begin screaming "SHE'S CHOKING!" at the top of my lungs. (Rookie move#3). I look at her to see if my fancy anti-choking technique is working and she is still making that awful noise. Now I'm turning her upside down and screaming "KEVIN!" (Rookie move #4). I'm in pure panic and terror mode and screaming and terrorizing my poor child and now my husband has joined me and he's in that panic too. Fortunately for us all he's able to remove her from my grips and figure out that she's coughing and not choking. The poor child was abused for coughing.

I took her to the doctor the next day and told the doctor my story. I laughed so hard telling my sister the next day that I cried. We joked that I have to tell the doctor, "Ignore the marks on her ribs and her ankles - those were not child abuse... they were my attempts to revive her."

I'm cool as a cucumber under pressure.

Had a great physical therapy

Had a great physical therapy session at RIC last week. They figure out good ways to make a bunch of us laugh thru 3 hrs of frustrating work.

Where have all the gas

Where have all the gas stations gone? Our gas stations are closing all around us. Gas prices are so high. What gives?