A Late February Blizzard

You know there is nothing finer than a late, late February snowstorm.  That drops 5 inches of very wet snow in about a 2-hour period.  Rose #1 is keeping a (sporadic) phenology journal and she wanted to take a photo of the snow for her journal.  This is the view out our front window:

Rose #3 is totally all about the dresses these days.  We were walking down the stairs tonight and I had to take a picture of her smiling up at me.  I know mommyblogs get a bit boring about how cute the kids are, but isn't she SO DARN CUTE!
And here is the icing on the cake.  When I got downstairs from changing my clothes after work, what did I find but Ms. Rose #2 helping herself to a delicious chocolate milk treat!  Yummy!
Goings on about the Roses house today.  Thought you might like to know.

Ladies Night #4

Here we are - the fourth night of H's class. We have had a fun night. We worked on spelling words (February! Astronomy!) and Rose #2 is working on identifying the first letter in words - bat, cat, mat, sat, etc. She is doing well and learning her letters.

After dinner Rose #2 decided she wanted to start playing the piano! I think we are going to have to get our piano tuned up and start on some piano lessons! Maybe I will take some too.

OK, here is a secret about me. I know this blog is about my kids, and that's where the focus is, but I have to tell you something about me. I have always wanted to be a writer, for as long as I can remember. So, I decided to start writing short stories. Why not? I also decided that I don't need fancy writing lessons or a ton of time every day. I have been writing on the train on the way to and from work. 25 minutes/day. Beats 0 minutes/day?!

Rose #3 can say so many, many words. Like "Mommy, get me dressy. Now. Get my pink dressy now." And, "Mommy, get me juice. Get me juice in a cup. Now." And, "Mommy, want my booky. Get my booky. Now." (Do you discern a pattern?)  Here she is, enjoying her Wednesday night shower:

Rose #1 is about to lose her second bottom tooth.  And, be a Lion Dancer in her school musical!  The first grade musical...

Nothing Much is Going On

I know I've been absent for awhile, all you faithful readers of mine (all two of you).  Here is an update on the Roses:

Rose #1:  I went to be parent volunteer at chess club last Friday!  It was great to see Rose #1 spot me in the cafeteria and run across the room for a hug.  I know if I am chess club parent in 6th grade she won't even want to greet me.  Chess for first graders is kind of a stretch, BTW.  The main duty of the chess club parent volunteer is stopping the kids from throwing chess pieces at one another.

Rose #2:  Home for the third week in a row!  Rose #2 goes to a year round school, and that means mainly that summer vacation is broken up into shorter stints throughout the year.  She will be more than ready to go back next week!

Rose #3:  Stinkpants.  She can really string together sentences now - like "Me Gabriella Mommy, you Troy."  Guess which DVD we got this week?

Menus...thrilling post topic, no?

Sunday:  Chicken Noodle Soup, home made bread, salad (from Stalochs), dessert (from Terry)

Monday:  MND

Tuesday:  Salmon, lemon rice, frozen veggies

Wednesday: Bean and Noodle Soup, home made bread, crudites

Thursday: Some sort of casserole (I am running out of ideas here!!)

Friday: Sauteed chicken breasts, egg noodles, broccoli

Ladies Night #3

Another Wednesday night at home with the Roses...a bit more subdued tonight. Rose #1 had pneumonia over the weekend and she still isn't 100%. But she did draw a beautiful picture to earn her dessert tonight (it was the "Hall of African Mammals" a la Night at the Museum notwithstanding that one of the animals bore a striking resemblance to a pig):

I wish you saw the look on Rose #2's face when I introduced a new dessert concept: pretzels with melted chocolate chips. It wasn't exactly this look but it was close!
Rose #3 is just perpetually cheerful. In this picture she was helping Rose #2 color a picture to earn their dessert.
And here they are in action:
We managed to avoid all TV time tonight (not all screen time - a few games on PBS kids online) and they are just much happier girls when I don't have to pry them away from the tube.

The Great Mobile Project

Rose #1 has been learning about balance points and counterweights in school.   The project that culminates the balance unit is to build a mobile.  Well, H went out today to get the materials - the dowels that form the bar of the mobile - and of course, wouldn't you know it, they were actually lightsabers.  Here are the Jedi and her Padawan having a lightsaber battle:

And here are the Jedi and the Padawan learner (I will leave it to YOU to decide who is who) gazing in a very serious manner into the camera:

And I wish I got a real shot of Rose #3 in her pull-up, her beaded headband, her slipper socks, and her dowel lightsaber (she got the shortest one, of course).  She was moving around too much for you to appreciate the full effect of Rose # 3's Jedi Warrior In a Pull-Up Look:
And in the background, H cutting the dowels for Rose #1 to make her mobile.  All I have to say is, thank GOD for H, because if it was me trying to make the mobile, we would have something with paperclips and rubberbands:

An Eventful Weekend

Rose #1 was not feeling well on Saturday, and she skipped skiing.   About 20 minutes after H left with Rose #2 (and Rose #3 REFUSED to nap), I had that Motherly Instinct feeling that all was really not well.  So we got right into Urgent Care, and when we got there, they took her blood oxygen level.  90!  Hah!  Vindicated!

She started spiking a fever after we had been there for awhile, and after a chest x-ray and two rounds of blood work, the very kind Dr. Martinez decided that she had pneumonia.  They gave her two penicillin shots (one in each leg, and several nurses had to hold her down, etc.).  Luckily by then H had shown up to bring Rose #3 home.   After we stayed for awhile to make sure Rose #1 would not have an allergic reaction to the penicillin, we went home.  Rose #1 slept with me last night - I was just worried she would stop breathing or something in the middle of the night.

We got up today and had to head back to Urgent Care for follow up.  By this morning I kind of suspected that Rose #1 had a UTI, and sure enough, I was right.  We walked away from the weekend with three new prescriptions - Albuterol, Prednisolone, and Omnicef.  YUM.  Esp. Prednisolone, which Rose #1 just LOVES.  (Or, more accurately, she expends every ounce of strength in her surprisingly strong body fighting off whoever is coming at her with the 5 ml she has to take twice a day by mouth.)