Monday, June 1st, 2009
When they aren’t fighting, my children really do love each other! The other day they were apart for five minutes, and when they saw each other again, you would have thought they were long-lost friends!
Delaney was taking a walk with the grandparents while Colin and I parking the car. When we both made it back to the sidewalk, they spied each other about a half-block apart. Delaney started yelling at Colin, and Colin shouted “LANEY!” They started running towards each other as fast as they could, and embrased in the middle of the sidewalk. It was HILARIOUS!
Ahh…sibling love…
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Delaney really wants to write. She has things to say, but since she can’t write them down herself, she dictates to us. Most recently she dictated her grocery list to Chris:
- crasins
- broccoli
- pasta
- pizza
- sunflower seeds
- beer
Looks like she’s covering all her bases!
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Ahhh…SPRING! And a time to finally get a little caught up around here.
I will be honestly and gainfully employeed beginning around August. I have accepted a Montessori teaching position for ages 9-12 (4-6 grade). I’m really looking forward to it - I have so many ideas! The children will attend school with me (yay!) and I will be able to have lunch with them most days. At current, I’m working towards Montessori certification. Fun fun! It’s a correspondence course, but in order to finish before the school year starts, I should be working an hour or two every day. That’s certainly not happening! But I’m trying…hard!
Today Delaney had her first ballet class. She looked so cute in her little leotard! She had a great time. After class, she told me, “Mommy, I did a REALLY GOOD JOB.” So she did! I think she enjoyed it.
While Delaney was in ballet, Colin took a little swim in the play pool (while I sat on the sidelines, enjoying my new Peek!).
Fun times were had by all!
And speaking of growing, our garden is looking pretty darn good thanks to Chris! He was in charge of doing the planting this year. We also gave two little garden areas to the children, so it will be fun to see what comes up in those little areas. It looks like they planted all the seeds in one quarter of the bed!
I always say I’ll be a better blogger, but don’t always mean it. But I’ll say it again…I’m going to be a better blogger!
Sunday, March 29th, 2009
Today Chris was playing around with the camera and snapped a few shots of the kids and me together. We all had messy hair and some of us had messy faces and clothes, but the photos are pretty “realistic” - at least in my house!
Here’s Delaney telling me a story about something big
I wish this photo had turned out better! The sun was hitting us in the wrong place, so the lighting isfunky! But I think it’s a grea photo of Colin.
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Colin just said to me:
“Mommy! Don’t pick a man up and kiss him!”
He said this while I was picking him up and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Crazy kid!
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
I got a new camera last month, and I LOVE it! It’s a Nikon D60 - it is so light and easy to use. I haven’t done as much experiementing as I would like to do. Here are a few of the first few photos I’ve taken.
Delaney and Colin playing outside on a cold March day
Colin riding the horse
Regal Zoey
I love my brother most of the time
It’s been fun! I can’t wait to experiement more.
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Colin has become obsessed with listening to music - particularly to listening to Laurie Berkner…to be more specific, to listening to Victor Vito, The Goldfish and This is the Story. Really. OBSESSED. He sings them often. He asks for them more often. Every time we get into the car, he asks to hear Victor Vito. He can sing just about the whole song with a few “Colinese” words here and there.
So because my MP3 player was becoming a little too clogged with my children’s favorite music, we took an older MP3 player and loaded it with a bunch of music just for them. Colin thinks having his own “MM player” is absolutely wonderful! He likes to have it with him, to carry it around in his pocket. He talks about the music he has on his “MM player” often. He will tell random people in the grocery store that he has Victor Vito on his MM player. Now, instead first asking for music when we get in the car, he makes sure I have his MM player. It’s very cute, and very funny!
My sweet Colin, a musical genius in the making!
Monday, March 9th, 2009
Delaney: Mom, why did Colin get an egg?
Me: Because I love him.
Delaney: Don’t you love me?
pause pause pause (as I’m laughing too hard to talk)
Delaney: Mom, don’t you love me?
Me: Yes.
Delaney: So you can give me an egg, too.
pause pause pause
Delaney: Mom, how much do you love me?
*Note: egg = chocolate easter egg
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Both Colin and Delaney LOVE to chew gum! They both ask for it constantly. They ask me to buy them “kid gum” every time we go to the store (which is those little blister packs of gum chips). The other day I told Colin that if he stayed in the Y playhouse and didn’t cry the whole time I’d give him gum. It didn’t work, but he still begged for the gum!
Actually, Delaney will sit still longer and concentrate better with gum in her mouth. It gives her the movement and “exercise” she needs that enables her to focus on something else. Delaney will chew her gum until it’s time to spit it out - like a meal or a snack. She will forgo snack time for gum, silly girl.
Colin, on the other hand, will chew his gum until he is done, then swallow it (I guess). The other day I asked him where his gum had gone about an hour after I gave it to him. He told me: “I chewed it up.” So far I haven’t found gum stuck in any unusual (or usual) places, so I guess he is swallowing it.
So my two children have inherited my overwhelming oral fixation and love having gum in their mouths.
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Delaney’s last few stitches fell out tonight. Actually, Chris gave them a tug and the pulled right out. It looks worse than before! But it will heal up nicely and the scar will fade.
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Wordless Wednesday
Friday, February 6th, 2009
Delaney was into the silly faces! This photo was taken at the end of the third day (Wednesday). She is healing up!
http://tara.taraandchris.com/files/blog/feb09/healing1.jpg
This photo and the next were taken today, Friday. This is the end of day 5. The stitches are still in, but only this afternoon did we uncover it for any length of time. It seems to really be healing up and we expect the stitches to start coming out any day. In the photo above, she was “flashing” - or blinking, as we grown-ups call it. I could not get this child to stay still! Seriously, she would say, “I’m being still” whilst wiggling her head and hand and bouncing on the bed and changing her mind and deciding to sit here not there and…and…and… I didn’t care if she was “flashing” - at least she was somewhat still!
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
Yesterday, February 1, 2009, Delaney received her first stitches. She got 6 stitches in her head, just above her left eyebrow. This is one of those milestones we could have done without.
The children were staying with my parents for the afternoon while Chris and I planned to get some early-spring cleaning done and take care of a few tasks around the house. I dropped them off around 10ish, then came back home. Chris and I decided to go out for an early lunch. We had just sat down at the restaurant and were waiting for our sandwiches when my dad called with some news.
Delaney fell while running down a handicap ramp on the UNC campus. She banged her head into the blunt edge of a railing. She barely cut the skin and it hardly bled, but as it started to swell, it pulled apart the cut until it was almost an inch long and about 1/4 inch opened. They decided to take her to the pediatric emergency room at UNC Hospitals.
The coversations came and went, with Dad calling back every few minutes with updates. At first we thought it was just something that the grandparents could handle, but after giving verbal consent for stitches to the doctor, Chris and I decided it would be best to go on the hospital.
It took us about 35 minutes to get over to Chapel Hill, and when we arrived, Delaney was playing happily while Colin cruised the halls.
She had received some numbing cream and the wound was covered. Within about 10 minutes, the doctor came back into the room to get her ready for the stitches. They swaddled her up tightly to keep her still. She didn’t like this much, but she was OK - they put the television near her head so she could watch Blues Clues.
We were able to stay right beside her, which was calming. First she got like a million shots of some local numbing medication. Then the doctor cleaned the area. Her hair and face were soaked!
Nurse Jim was great! He talked to Delaney throughout the whole procedure. In order to keep the area sterile, they had to cover her face completely with those blue sterile clothes. That might have been the worst part! She did great for the first couple of stitches, but after that she started freaking out. She was screaming, “Please STOP. PLEASE!” She was pleading. That was horrible for me.
I absolutely COULD NOT watch. I just couldn’t watch the needle going through her skin. And when she started crying and begging, I could barely stand it. I wanted that doctor to HURRY UP and be DONE! It seemed like it took forever, but hopefully she will have very little scar.
Afterward she was fine. She shook it off pretty well, and was glad to have some lunch! We were out of the hospital a little after 2 p.m. This was officially the fastest emergency room visit we’ve had (we’ve had four ER visits between both children in the last four years).
I suppose we were due a medical emergency - after all, I just finished paying off Colin’s surgery last month. Thank goodness they don’t both get hurt or sick or need surgery at the same time - we’d go broke! They just time it perfectly so that we don’t get more than a month or two of reprieve from medical bills before the next one starts. Thanks, kids!
Friday, January 30th, 2009
Today we lost a chicken. This is the first one we’ve lost, but with chickens, you always know that you might walk out to the coop and find one dead or missing. Today, it happened. And unfortunately, we lost Lola, who happens to be Delaney’s favorite.
I hadn’t seen Lola wandering around this morning, although I hadn’t been paying attention. But I could see a little tuft of feathers and I thought it was her. But as I was watching, that tuft of feathers wasn’t moving. Usually Lola is out and about. She’s our “special” chicken - our cross-beak. This means that her top and bottom beaks do not match up - they are crooked.
She had a difficult time eating and drinking. For a while, I made her “mash” out of oatmeal, cornmeal, water and other grains, but that is TIME CONSUMING! She did OK feeding herself, and we’d give her buckets of food that she could eat more effectively.
She lived 18 months, which was longer than both Chris and I expected her to live. She also laid eggs - not as many as the healthier hens, but a couple per week! Chris buried her out in the woods.
We haven’t told Delaney yet. She will notice soon, though. She does her “chicken check up” several times per day and always looks specifically for Lola. She will be upset - I’m not looking forward to it. She’ll adopt a new “favorite” chicken, although Lola will always be special to her.
Lola, you were a great chicken, and you will be missed.
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Delaney just told Chris that she wants “BIG milkies, like mommy’s. Big ones that go FLAP FLAP FLAP” and then started to cry about it.
I assure you, darling, you don’t want big milkies like mommy’s, and you certainly don’t want them to go flap-flap-flap.