Time for Each Child

Today has been one of the longest days (literally) that I have had in a long time. The nice part was that I had time with each of my daughters one-on-one. First up was Ava. Today was Career Day at her school, and the Kindergarteners were invited to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. After some discussion, Ava finally decided to dress up as a dancer. (At first she just wanted to be famous, and I had to explain that you have to be famous for DOING something worthy of noticing - sorry but no Kardashians in this house.) Who knows what the chances are that she will really be a dancer when she grows up, or that she'll want to be that, but this is where she is at right now in her life, and I was glad to help her show her friends what she is currently aspiring to be.

my future ballet teacher

At lunchtime it was Jocelyn's turn for some attention. I think she must have seen something on TV this morning about making mini bagel pizzas, because all morning she was asking to make some for lunch. I didn't have any mini bagels, but we made tortilla pizzas. She did about 70% of the prep (I helped even things out as we went along). The pizzas tasted great, and Jocelyn was very proud of herself for getting to prepare her lunch on her own. I may have a little chef on my hands :)

spreading the sauce

enjoying her hard work

It became clear that one way or another Molly was going to make sure she was not forgotten today. She has been fighting a pesky fever all week long. It always breaks, but every morning when she wakes up and every afternoon when she gets up from her nap she has a fever of at least 102. This afternoon when she got up from her nap it was up to 104.5, so I said enough is enough and took her to the pediatrician. Unfortunately, it was late enough in the day that they sent us to the pediatrics ER to have some labwork and chest x-ray done. I stopped by the house just long enough to pick up my tablet and a coloring book for entertainment and some pj's for miss Molly, since it was promising to be a long night.

And boy was it!! We arrived at the ER around 6:30pm. Within an hour or so we had spoken with the nurse practitioner, gotten chest x-ray, peed in a cup, and had a port put in and labs drawn. By 9pm the NP returned to inform me that they were going to admit Molly for the night. Her white blood cell count was REALLY high, and so they wanted to make sure they ruled out a few more serious illnesses before just chalking this all up to a tough virus. It was midnight by the time we were transported upstairs, and almost 2am before all of the techs, nurses, and doctors had come in to do what they needed to do. Molly was PHENOMENAL. She dealt with the pokes, prods, and constant sleep interruptions with very little complaint. 

The funniest part of the whole experience: about every minute of so Molly would pathetically say to me, "Mommy, I not feel good." I would always respond with "I know, I'm sorry honey" or "I'm so sorry sweet pea." But a few times I said, "I know, pumpkin." To which she would look up at me annoyed and reply, "Mommy, I not a pumpkin! I Molly!!" I don't know why that particular pet name irritated her so, and I never said it on purpose, but every time I called her Pumpkin I was read the riot act. It was a healthy dose of laughter in an otherwise draining situation. I love all three of my pumpkins, even if I'm no longer allowed to call them that to their faces.

sad sack at the pediatrician

port in, overtired, and still smiling

Family Night

This evening turned into an impromptu family night. Before and after dinner the girls watched Brave together. Molly and I read a few books. Jocelyn and Ava made some creations with dominoes, and then Ben joined them for a game or two of dominoes. It was a very lovely last couple of hours to our day. It is nice that my children are getting old enough to initiate evenings like tonight. We all had fun together, and that is a pretty great way to end the day.

Preschool Reunion

This morning we had a mini preschool reunion for Jocelyn's class. One of the other moms had invited all of the kids to a local playground, and out of 12 children only 2 did not make it. Everyone had a blast - the kids played on the playground, swung on the swings, explored mini ponds and chased bugs in a nearby field. There were snacks and drinks brought to share... all in all a great way to spend a few hours this morning. What struck me most is how fortunate both my daughters were with their classmates this year. Their classes are full of kids who are all good friends. Of course they all have the kids they are closer to, but I saw Jocie play with all 9 other children at some point or other. As we were leaving, Jocelyn had to give every one of her old classmates a hug AND kiss. As we were walking away, we kept hearing, "BYE, JOCELYN!!" To which (without even looking) Jocelyn would reply, "BYE" and say the name of whoever was yelling at her. I knew when we left the house that we would have a nice time; I left the playground with a much greater appreciation for the special friendships Jocelyn created this year.

Flashback

This afternoon I was sitting at the dance studio as Jocelyn's dance class had just begun, when her teacher walked toward me with her 6-month-old son. The person who usually watches Jaxon during Jocie's class hadn't arrived yet, so Jenn asked if I would watch him until his normal sitter got there. I said of course and took Jax from his Momma.

Holding Jaxon reminded me of Jocelyn when she was a baby - he is a SOLID kid. He is easily in 9 month clothes, and probably not too far off from a 12 month size. I am now so used to Molly, who weighs nothing and is a little string bean. It was fun working my Momma muscles again on a chunky baby. He was great, and I had a great time reminiscing my own chunky baby Jocelyn's days. I am a bit out of practice (my arms were certainly feeling the burn by the time Heather arrived) but I had a blast entertaining Jaxon and playing stand-in sitter.

Molly-hug Magic

Today was a very long day. I didn't sleep well and woke up early, which is NEVER a good way to start things off. We are taking our neighbor to school the rest of the year, so there was an extra child in the house to entertain (not to mention behave my grumpy sleep-deprived self around). Molly has been dealing with pink eye for a day or two, and then woke up with a fever as well so she was puny and out of sorts. Despite all this, we got kids dropped off at school, went to get my hair done, came home just long enough to grab a quick lunch, picked up Ava from school, and went to the pediatrician. We were home for about 2 hours before I headed back out to turn money in at the dance studio and pick up Molly's prescription. Oh, and to top it all off I was having some "girl" issues of my own (sorry if that's TMI).

I tell you all of this to set the scene of a very tired Momma making dinner. I was making grilled cheese sandwiches, and after I had flipped them over I just sat down on the kitchen floor to rest for a minute. Molly came walking in to the kitchen at that moment. She saw me, paused, and then came running towards me. She collided with me and gave me a huge hug and said, "I love you, Mommy!!" Somehow this little person's hug alleviated my exhaustion and discomfort. Molly sat there and hugged and snuggled with me for about a minute, and it was hands down the best minute of my day.

Papa's Princess

We have been very blessed that my dad works closely with Fort Detrick in Frederick, MD and travels to our area every couple months. That is, until the joys of sequestration kicked in. It has been six months since he's been out here, which is easily the longest stretch we haven't seen him since we moved to Virginia. It seems Molly is especially aware of this, as over the last week or she has randomly said to me, "Momma, Papa want to come to my house? He my BEST friend!!" 

This evening we had the chance to Skype with Papa for a few minutes. Of course, Molly was in the middle of a very riveting episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so it took a few minutes to pry her away. But once she was in front of that screen, she immediately lit up and squealed at her Papa. She proceeded to spend the next few moments making silly noises and laughing hysterically as my dad would "mess up" nursery rhymes. As we were getting ready to wrap up, Molly posed her question to Papa: "You wanna come my house?" He of course said maybe soon... to which she promptly brought out her best pout face. These two have a pretty special relationship, and it is so fun watching the two of them crack each other up and make each other smile. I'm telling you what, this girl loves her Papa, and while it will still probably be a while until she sees him in person again, I was glad she could get a little fix tonight to tide her over.

Be Our Guest!

This morning was AWFUL. All three girls were in the mood to push any and all of each other's buttons, and I was not in any mood to deal with their nonsense. By 10am I was on the phone with my mom only half-joking on whether we would all make it to the end of the day in one piece. It was even more daunting as we were having one of Ava's friends over for the afternoon and evening. Would having an extra body in the house brighten everyone's mood? Maybe. But could it make life even more miserable? Quite possibly.

Fortunately, everyone had composed themselves by the time Samantha arrived. All four girls had a blast - there was almost no arguing at all (just a little complaining about younger sisters butting into the big girls' playtime). I took a handful of pictures, and at one point found myself wondering what for. I mean, it's not like we don't have people over all of the time. A small part of it was it was our first time out with the sprinkler this year, and it's always fun to document the firsts of each season. But I finally realized I was just so excited the kids were having so much fun after such a disaster of a morning. It turned out a guest was just what we all needed, and the day ended up WAY better than it began.

playing in the sprinkler

look at us!

ah, my youngest child...

drying off

time for a popsicle/ice cream sandwich break

movie time!

friends cozy in the papasan chair