7 Years

Emma turned 7 on Sunday the 23rd. It makes me feel very old.

We decided to have a small party this year. We usually have tons of kids running around the back garden and their parents hanging around eating pizza and drinking beer. We've done that every year since she made her entrance into our lives, and while it's an awful lot of fun, I thought it was time for something a little different.

Places like Club Libby Lu and Chuck E. Cheese were out of the question, for obvious reasons. Emma and I had been to The Mad Potter before to make gifts for family and teachers, and I thought that would be a nice, calm place to have a little gathering.

We also decided that she was old enough to have a slumber party. I thought that inviting 4 girls over would be a good number, but it somehow got up-graded to 5 without me realizing. So, we were going to have 6 little 7-year-olds running around the house until late into the night. Hmmmmm...Chuck E. Cheese wasn't sounding quite so bad after all.

We met the gals at The Mad Potter on Saturday afternoon and they spent about an hour and a half or so choosing and painting their little ceramic creations. I think it took them more time to decide on what they wanted to paint than to actually do the painting itself. They had lots of fun, and worked hard on their pieces.


We took them home and they ran around the house and garden, chased poor little Rose, jumped on the trampoline, played in the tent, put glittery make up on, made a mess of Emma's room, played with walkie-talkies, and crushed cascarones on each other's heads. Fun fun fun.

There are more photos here if you're interested.

I made pizza, we had cake and ice cream, Emma opened her presents, and they settled down to watch Matilda. I can't think of a better film for a bunch of first grade girls to watch. They loved it!

Then, as luck would have it, I got one of my what I like to refer to as killer headaches. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but they leave me helpless, and often make me physically ill. Great timing huh? So, while I was laying in my dark bedroom trying not to die, Darrel took care of the girls for the rest of the evening. What a brave man.

They ran around for an hour or so playing with flashlights and scaring each other in the dark house. The screaming was great for my headache, but things could have been a lot worse, so I can't complain. Darrel said the last two finally fell asleep at about 11:00. We figured they'd all be really sleepy and wake up late. We know so little.

They were all up bright and early at 6:30. Pancakes were made and eaten, more running around the house and garden occurred, and then parents began to arrive. All the girls were gone by 10am, and there were no major injuries. That's what I call a successful sleep-over!

The rest of the day was just the three of us hanging out together. She opened the gifts that we bought her, we went to Maudie's for lunch, and then to the Main Event for the climbing wall. She had been there with Isabella H. before and had apparently done rather well, but this time, she just couldn't, or wouldn't, get up very far. I find that she's often a lot braver when Darrel and I aren't around. We played air hockey and then left.

We had a relaxing evening and she got to bed at a decent hour. I think she had a great birthday this year. Darrel and I sure had fun. Thank goodness we only have to do it once a year.

No More Sick Child

Huzzah!!! Emma is well again!

On Friday, a full week after it made it's first appearance, Emma's fever left her. Thank, well, thank every diety you can think of. She's still got a bit of a cough, and is still sleeping a little more than usual, but she's feeling much better.

Too much, actually. Missing a week of school and not seeing anyone under the age of, well, 37, put her in quite a state. She drove the husband and myself absolutely mad this weekend. Lots of wanting to play and tons of sassy back-talk. Lordy! It's all understandable, of course. If I had been in bed for that long, I would have been out of control too. She went back to school today, and hopefully, got it all out of her system. Our house should return to normal.

Without a refrigerator. The fridge we bought about a year ago decided it just didn't want to keep anything cool anymore, dammit! It had worked hard enough over the past year, and is on strike. The freezer is fine, but the fridge is room-temperature, which is lovely, isn't it? Thank goodness we spent the extra dough and bought the 3 year warranty, which is very unlike us. We're usually pretty cheap about stuff like that. Darrel called Fry's (where we made the purchase) and they said it might be 48 hours before someone could get out to the house. So, we've got a cooler full of melting ice and souring milk in the kitchen. But the frozen corn is good to go!

Gotta Love the Strep!

Emma is still sick. It's Wednesday, for Dog's sake!

I took her to the doctor on Monday, and we got a call yesterday afternoon that she has strep. She started her antibiotics last night. She slept well last night, but remained in bed this morning until 11:30-ish. She's still running a fever, but she's awake now at least. Poor baby. I don't think she's ever been this ill for this long. The doctor said that she could go back to school once she was on the medicine for 24 hours, which would mean tomorrow. But, seeing as they don't have school on Friday, I don't see the point in sending her back tomorrow. Certainly if she's still not 100%.

Since she slept all morning, I was able to do a little work, which was good, since I'm missing the majority of the week. She is now laying on the fold-out couch with Rose, our wee-poodle and listening to a book-on-CD.

And that is probably the only good thing to come out of this illness. We pulled out our copy of The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events - Book the Second) read by the amazing Tim Curry, and stuck it in the CD player. It's the best thing ever. Much better than the film. This is Emma's third time through the whole thing in the past 2 days, and shows no sign of tiring of it. I highly recommend it, whether you have a child or not. It's just as entertaining for adults, perhaps more so.

Weekend-Schmeekend

I had great plans for the past weekend. Fun was to be had by all!

My folks were coming into town to celebrate Emma's birthday a little early, since they won't be here on the day. Grupo Fantasma was playing at Central Market on Saturday night, and we were all going to go. I've heard much about this group and have wanted to see them for a while. Central Market seemed the perfect venue: outside under the trees, good food, good beer and wine, and a playscape for the wee one.

Sunday, the husband's band Mundi was playing at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for their Spring Plant Sale. I love the Wildflower Center. Especially in the spring. My Dad loves plants, and there's the Little House with activities for Ms. Emma. All this, and we'd be supporting Darrel and enjoying the music at the same time. What could be better?

But alas, the weekend gods did not smile upon me or mi familia.

Firstly, Mom called Friday morning saying she wasn't feeling well. She still wanted to come, but thought she should warn us about the possibility of her getting us sick. Ha! I said. I laugh at your puny Edna germs. We have Austin immune sytems. Bring 'em on!

Upon arriving home after work, I found Emma laying on the couch looking pale. She had 102 fever. Ugh. So much for Austin immune systems. Several of her friends at school had been out too.

My folks came anyway. Emma had moments of feeling not too bad, mixed with moments of feeling like crap. Her fever went up and down like a bloody lift all weekend. Then, to put the icing on the shitty-weekend cake, my Dad fell ill. I felt like we should quarantine the house.

So, no Fantasma, no Wildflowers. I suppose there will be other near-perfect weekends.

As I sit here on Monday afternoon at home, Emma is still ill. I took the day off and took her to the doctor this morning. No ear infection, and her lungs are fine. She may have strep, and I'll know that tomorrow. Or, he said, it could just be a virus that causes a 4 to 5 day fever. Lovely. Dave at work's little one Ian had something eerily similar last month. So, something's going around. I would not have felt left out if it had skipped right over Emma.

If her fever continues past 5 days, the doctor said, it's time for blood work. I can't even think about that. What does that even mean? They take some blood and look for....what? Perhaps I don't want to know.

I hope she recovers soon. I feel so damn helpless. All I can do is give her tylenol, water, and juice and hope for the best. What a great Mom, huh?

Oops, Emma's awake. Gotta go.

Olympics and Horses

The Lee Olympics were on Friday March 31st this year. What fun, what fun. Each year the school gets all the kids together and they compete in events like the bean bag throw, the three legged race, and the older kids have the long jump and other track and field events. This is our second Lee Olympics, and they are just too much fun.

To see more photos, visit my Family Photos page.

Today, we went and visited Golden Vista Equestrian Center. Emma is going to be attending a 2 week day-camp here this summer. She has some friends who take riding lessons, and has always been interested in horses, though she's also been a bit afraid of them. We haven't been able to afford for her to take lessons every week, but thought we would be able to send her to a 2 week camp.



Golden Vista was having an open house today, so we went to check it out. It seems like a pretty nice place. I know nothing about this sort of thing, but we spoke with the lady in charge, and she seemed to know what she was talking about. They learn alot while they're at camp, and spend lots of time grooming, cleaning up after, and generally looking after their horse, in addition to riding it. We met some girls who had been going there for a few years, and they seemed amazingly comfortable with the horses and were great at putting Emma, and us, at ease.

There are more horse pics on my Family Photos page.