Lily teaches a class

A couple of weeks ago my friend jenny told me that her daughter refuses to keep bows in her hair. So I asked her if she makes her own bows and lets Danielle choose the ribbons and all the glam for them. She stared at me blankly so I told her to go buy ribbon and clippies and call me when she had them.

Tonight the whole family came over for dinner and Lily taught Auntie Jen how to make hair bows. I cooked, Lily taught Jen, Rosie entertained Danielle, Evan made a project and Ed, god love him took apart a wonky electrical outlet and checked out my ageing front door for me. All told it was a win win situation. The house was absolutely buzzing.

After Jenny would show Danielle a bow she would literally gasp with delight and immediately put it in her hair. She ended up wearing 4 at the same time and I failed to get a photo. Things were nutty.

The table looked like this, Lily isn't a neat crafter and it makes my brain itch.

Holy mess from h*ll Batman.

Who knew it was such a serious business. 

Jen and I used to get the kids together all the time but then we started swimming and we never see anyone anymore :( We decided tonight that we have to get together more often.

school pictures

This post contains lots of sarcasm. It is me at my finest so if you do not care for sarcasm back away, quickly and QUIETLY. You have been warned.

5th grade, age 10. Forever to be known as the year of the broke arm

Kindergarten. Age 6. The year of the long legs

Twice a year the school does the obligatory photos and on those days the school, that has a mandatory uniform, allows the kids to wear whatever they want. Makes no sense to me either. A few weeks goes by and then they send home the photos and we get to throw our heads back and roar with laughter at the ridiculousness of the photos and then we raise our eyebrows and ask, what the hell was the photographer thinking? I love my girls to bits and always purchase a photo or two to mark the school year passing but seem to purchase less and less as the years go by. This year the package was $70. Are you freaking kidding me? For these crappy pictures, oh and lest you should think that was for both of the girls, WRONG that was per child.

So lets begin dissecting the photos shall we...its' jolly good fun.

 1. What the hell is with the camo background? I truly don't find it very becoming for little girls in dresses or in shorts for that matter.

2. Lily has no eyeballs. Well of course she does just not in the photo. Shouldn't the fauxtog have had her chin pointed up, just a tad?

3. Apparently he/she was more concerned with trying to hide her broken arm. (lily told me he sat her backwards and made her look over her shoulder until she refused) The arm is like the elephant in the room, accept it but the eyes, they would have been nice.

moving on

4. Perhaps Rosie smelled a little funny that morning. She didn't when she left the house but there must be a reason why he shot this picture from so far away? Look at the baseboard in Lil's photo and then is Ro's, notice the size difference?

5. This is picky but the stool is bigger than Rose. Should have used the cushion that the bigger kids used.

6. A generic, tuck in your shirts and fix your hair would have gone a long way. But that isn't really the fauxtogs job. Rosie looks like she just came dashing out of the loo.


Last year when I posted this I got a very snotty defensive comment from a school photographer. Don't worry lovey it's all in humour so puhlease don't get your knickers in a knot this year. I bet you are heads and shoulders about this bunch.

Gotta love em', they are seriously terrible.

Party like a rock star

Shortly before heading out of the house to go to a birthday party with the girls this morning I asked Lily to please grab me the 2 waivers off of the printer. She wanted to know what they were so I told her that I had just signed 2 forms stating that if either of them got maimed or killed at the party today I wouldn't hold either the hosts or the venue responsible.

Her response, "cool, I love Katie Starr and Ethans parties".

Yep, they set the bar high when it comes to partying like a rock star but at the same time keep it real. Todays venue, Funky Fish Ocean Club, where the kids would learn to Boogie Board and make a tie dye shirt as a party favour.

And after travelling north for 55 mins the kids had the time of their lives in the ocean, boogie boarding. I grabbed my camera and headed to the waters edge to snap away and my camera turned off and required fresh batteries which I failed to bring. I took some shots with my phone but since the little email incident (that I may not have mentioned here) I am not getting great phone camera shots on the blog. ( I know it makes no sense but I can't get into it, it will take hours).

As the kids swam and boogied we talked and relaxed and I got sunburnt knees, yes really I did. How on gods green earth does one sunburn ones knees? It was fabulous, not sunburning the knees, the setting!. I sat perched on the sand in a chair watching the girls and the other children having a child perfect day. I talked to a sweet friend whom I never get to see and the day drifted along without us. H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y.

I would have bet a vast sum of cash that my girls would have fallen asleep on the way home because they didn't stop but luckily I am not the gambling sort as they both stayed wide awake chatting incessantly about the day.

I loved spending the day with these families and my kidlets did too.

The 2 kids in the middle of the photo laying on boogie boards are mine

Rosie, wearing the spotted suit, waiting for a wave

Lily

Ro

As for the rest of the photos, the cake cutting etc. yeah, i have no idea either. They are currenting lost in cyber hell.

Such a fabulous day was had by all.
Happy 8th birthday Katie Starr.

So this is going to stop her?

Child has a broken arm and it hasn't stopped her from doing anything in fact it has barely slowed her down but now she has a new ailment that is about to put her in dry dock!

Since Thursday she has been back in the pool and since she can only use her legs she is using a kick board for an hour and a half each night. Last night when I came home from work I snuck into her room to kiss her goodnight and thought she had a band aid on her chin. I realised, after closer inspection that it was actually zinc oxide cream.

Come to find out that swimming with a kick board and only one good arm is leading to chafing, lots and lots of chafing, to the point of raw (last night, almost bleeding skin, tonight, bleeding skin). The board sits and rubs across the top of her chest, into the her left armpit and all above her cast and a little bit on the other side too. Oh and the chin, I seriously have no idea how she chafes her chin but she does?? Does she say anything and get out of the pool? Heck no, she waits until the lesson is over and then makes the biggest fuss to her mother as if her mother caused this to happen, on purpose no less. She must have a dreadful mother to do such a thing.

I ran to the sporting goods shop tonight and bought her her own contoured, soft to the touch, kick board with cut-outs before practice tonight but apparently it only helped a little bit. It's a shame really cos it looks "kick arse" but what do I know. It still chafes her chest and armpit.

Tonight when she got out of the pool she looked absolutely drowned and down trodden, she didn't look that bad when she walked up to me with her arm in 2 pieces! She lifted her arm and there it was all raw and nasty.

I took her to the changing room and helped her change and all I had in the swim bag to help was baby talc so I powdered her up and then we went to talk to the boss man. He looked a little grossed out but without hesitation said, Vaseline and along sleeve shirt of this, (pointing to his own shirt) fabric and then she will be fine. DUH! Of course a long sleeve shirt. Thankfully we have just the thing....but I am not sure if it will fit over the freaking cast......It might need one sleeve cutting off and she will HATE that.

When we got home she told me she is so glad she doesn't have to swim tomorrow. It hurts so so much, mummy. If it isn't better by Thursday she doesn't want to swim then either. Holy cow, it must really sting. Poor kid she waited so long to get back in the pool and this is going to bring her down.

I slathered her in zinc and Castor oil cream tonight and it helped a lot but her bed sheets look a tad iffy now.
Who would have thunk!

Just getting started and all appears well

Still no signs of pain

90 minutes later and she isn't giving any hints.

A reprieve.....it must have felt so good

If she wasn't so stubborn....well if she wasn't so stubborn she wouldn't be Lily.

Only 3 or 4 more weeks kidlet. And, you DO NOT have to swim, this is your choice.

P.S. Dear kidlet, if I see one little itty bitty bit of red skin under your suit of armour whenever it is that you swim next, you are OUT of the pool. DONE! And yes I will march my sorry motherly butt over to the pool side and whip you up on deck to inspect you cos that is how I roll because I will not see you endure this and I will not endure this drama again as it is avoidable. So may I suggest that to avoid the Motherly Inspection and the embarrassment that it might cause you that you fess up if it hurts and just call it quits.

PPS. If I didn't love you I wouldn't bother, I would let you chafe until your body parts fell off.

It takes stubborn to know stubborn and child has met her match.

Math competition

A couple of weeks ago Lily asked me if she could enter a math bowl at school. Sure, if you want too, was my reply.

Who the heck wants to play math games? Oh that's right, she does.

It wasn't at school, it was at another school, it was one of those interschool math tourney dohickeys again. It wasn't the same one that she participated in last time, this was a different one and the math wasn't as complex in fact this was brain teaser math so it was easier but trickier if that makes sense. No after school practice or anything like that  just be at school at 6.50 am yesterday morning to leave on the 7am bus.

I worked for a couple of hours first thing yesterday so I drove up to the competition when I was done which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I arrived at 11 ish and waited and waited for whatever it was we were waiting for. Some kids disappeared for a while but Lily never went back in. She was in individual testing and relays. Hours slowly ticked by. The kids ate lunch, we talked, we acted goofy, they acted goofy, the teahers were annoyed at all the delays and lack of organisation. Finally we were all called into the gym. We filed in and were greeted by the superintendent of Dade County Schools. I thought it was really nice of him to show up.  It was not a huge event and there certainly were not many people there, not nearly as many as at the other competition so for him to take the time out of his weekend was impressive.

I wasn't sure why we were in the gym but it turned out it was time for more testing. OMG...seriously. I was so bored so was Rosie and 99.9999% of everyone else that was there. Thankfully I had asked both kids to pack a bag the night before and they both had things to do. Lily was passing comics and ipods etc out to her friends and Rosie was just bored beyond reprieve. I had to take Ro to the loo and when we came out the kids were outside. Yay we were done. Wrong! They had to leave as the bus was only booked until then and they had to go. The competition was so disorganised that we were going to miss the end of it. I told the teacher I would stay and whoever could fit in my car could stay too. Obviously she had a commitment to the kids on the bus so she had to leave but one other mum and her son stayed.

We stayed to the very end, not many did. The boy that stayed with us won for individual in his grade, which was fabulous. I am so glad we were there. It was such an anti climax for him though. Everyone scrambled for their awards and then charged out of there so fast. Just wrong. No time for a big fuss. We fussed over him....he deserved it.

Lily didn't win anything. Whoa...what's up with that? LOL. She said she knew she wasn't going to cos she guessed four questons.

The only girl on the team

the teaher on the right is Mrs T. Lilys math teacher. Great teacher, fabulous lady.

the winner

Tenacious

Before I start this post I need to preface it with a few words. Initially when Lily started swimming it was as a pastime, a little something to do after school to help decompress her brain after a day of academics. Because she is the type of student that she is she needs something physical to help her brain unwind. Never in a million years did I think swimming would become the competitive sport to her that it has....(insert big sigh here). Really it was quite daft of me to think any differently but I just didn't know enough about the sport. That first ribbon that she won changed the game for her.

Back to the here and now.

Thursday was the weekly, dog and pony show, x-ray and cast change appointment. Of course under the cast was some skanky looking skin complete with scabs this time around. The doc' probed and actually picked, much to Lily's chagrin and finally, albeit unwillingly, agreed to put her in a waterproof cast. This cast looked really different. The photos are in reverse order, the lining  looks almost like bubble wrap only the bubbles are square. The outer cast is still the same. This is cast number 5 and this weeks colour of choice is pink...bright, blinding pink.

Heavens above that thing is bright

all packed up in bubble wrap...where should I ship her too?

 Since Dr. Miller isn't happy about the break down of her skin we have to go back in a week for yet another cast. These waterproof casts are pretty pricey so he usually doesn't change them weekly but if her arm is nasty she has to go back to an ordinary one. If all is well, she gets another one for 2 more weeks and then one more for a week and she is done.

My little girl was thrilled. She was so so happy. Firstly she loved how light the new cast was. Then she couldn't wait to get to swimming, I mean she really couldn't wait. It was only 9am and she doesn't swim until 6pm but she was raring to go. I took her and her ear to ear smile to school and told her to have a fabulous day. She floated out of the office on a cloud. I went about my day and right before I went to pick the kids up from school was stopped dead in my tracks by a tornado warning. WTF?

I have lived her for a long time.  We get hurricanes we don't get tornadoes.  I turned on the news, i jumped on the computer. It was all true. A tornado warning until 8pm. As much as this could potentially have been very very bad all I could think of was, this isn't going to bode well for swimming. Someone is going to be very very upset.

As it got closer and closer to 4.30 I kept checking the Flying Fish page and there it was in large letters.

POOL CLOSED ALL NIGHT DUE TO WEATHER.

She was graceful but highly disappointed.

Tonight the weather threatened to be the same minus the tornadoes, which didn't happen anyway. My heart felt heavy for her. I rang the pool and they said they were open. We went, Rosie had 20 minutes of practice and then that high pitched whistle blew and they cleared the deck.

POOL CLOSED DUE TO WEATHER.

Thankfully it was short lived and they reopened after an hour.


This is what I saw.

Swimming in the rain.  She can't use her arms at all. I watched her like a flipping hawk cos I don't trust the little devil one bit. 

The cast really stands out

She pushed so hard, but so so hard. She kept up with all of her team mates and she hasn't swam in 22 days.
They say one day out of the water is equivalent to a week. I think she will be sore tomorrow. I didn't even wait until we got home. I laid her down on the stands and gave her a post event massage because her legs were like jelly. She didn't fight or complain. 

She was just so happy to be back in the pool.

Her coach asked me tonight if I thought she would be ready for a meet on the 19th? Umm, I don't think so she will still be in a cast. And unless the powers that be change the rules, you can't swim in a bandage let alone a cast! But she would if she could, you know she would.