Bullseye!

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A while back, Claire bought one of those toy plastic bows with suction cup arrows, for the movie Brave.  She never really figured out how to shoot it and never had a good place to practice.  She taped up a hand-drawn target on a piece of paper on the playroom cabinet, but of course the suction cup arrows never stuck to the paper.

At the end of her latest sleepover, Maddie’s dad tried it out and stuck an arrow right into the white board of the kids’ art easel.  Brilliant!  A few days later, Claire’s friend Claudia come over, and they drew a target on the easel.  Pretty soon, after working on their technique, Claire and Claudia were firing and sticking one arrow after another to the easel.

Today before we picked up Molly, Claire got her first perfect bullseye.  She shot and just nailed it.  So here is a picture to commemorate her first bullseye.

More Medicine, Please

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Molly woke up the other night at 2:00 am with an ear infection.  (Why are these always at 2:00 am?)  It actually took us a while to figure out what was bothering her because she did not tell us anything except she felt bad.  After a couple of hours, Molly said her ears hurt.  In retrospect, yes of course, it was an ear infection!  We gave her a couple of age 2-6 Tylenol chewables, which she said were yummy, and she finally got to sleep around 5:30.  She really thought the Tylenol was a treat, which was scary considering this.

The next day, at the doctor, Molly was prescribed an antibiotic called Cefdinir.  Molly loved the Cefdinir even more than the Tylenol.  She asked for more, sort of as a treat.  Hmm.  I said no, we only have this medicine once a day, and we only ever have medicine when the doctor or parents say it is time for it.  Molly listened politely and then  asked for some more medicine, as if I just didn’t quite hear her question right the first time.

Molly asks for her Cefdinir first thing every morning.  She also asks for Tylenol (“the other one”), but to no avail.  On the way home from school today, still a little confused about the times of day, she asked for her medicine “Tonight, right before breakfast.”

What do they put in medicine these days?  Sugar?  I remember hating to take medicine, like that cough medicine syrup.  It was just awful.  I can still taste it now, and it makes my stomach queazy.  I guess Molly will fondly remember her medicine as a yummy treat.  Medicine is supposed to taste bad, right?  Like that smell they add to propane so you know it’s not supposed to be there?  Actually, smelling the medicine, it does smell a little bad and medicinal to me.  But Molly says it tastes like cake.

Anyways, both medicines did their trick quite nicely.  Molly was happy and healthy as a clam the very next day.

That Tooth is Loose

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20140203-claire-loose-tooth1Claire just got her first loose tooth!  It’s a bottom tooth near the front.

Claire is so excited about this.  It’s the first thing she tells everyone.  Claire has been watching her classmates lose their teeth for the last couple of years wondering when it would happen to her, and now she’s really in the big kid club.

Molly says that she will probably be getting her loose tooth any day now too.

As a side note, I just had a gum grafting done on my own mouth, so I have to be a little careful about which part of my mouth I chew with.  Now loose-tooth Claire gets to join in the weird-eating club.

The Main Six

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Claire showing off her own My Little Pony sketches
Claire showing off her own My Little Pony sketches.

Today I asked Claire this question: “Is Twilight Sparkle the only Alicorn of the Main Six?”  The thing that surprised me was that really was curious if  Twilight Sparkle was the only one of the main My Little Pony characters to have both a horn and wings.  Huh?  Claire’s My Little Pony fascination had rubbed off on me.  I don’t really sit and watch the show, but it is on a lot, and Claire loves to talk about it.  She will rant about each character as long as you will listen.  The very first thing Claire brings up when she has a friend over is MLP.

The TV show in question is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and is just about the only show Claire has been watching for the last several months.  The only other show she chooses to watch, besides the occasional movie, is Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, which she can watch only once a week since it’s too, well, Barbie-ish (although it is funny and pokes fun at itself a lot).  Some of Claire’s friends tease her a bit for liking a “babyish” show like My LIttle Pony, but Claire proudly stands by her ponies.  I have to side with Claire on this one — the show is fairly complex and layered with morality tales, not just a bunch of generic pink ponies acting cute.  The characters are unique and independent and learning lessons through trial and error.  Claire hates — hates! — My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas since it is pretty babyish and shallow and has a whole different feel.

So is Twilight Sparkle the only Alicorn in the group?  Claire tells me that yes she is, at least at the end of season 3.  She is dying for Netflix to get season 4, though!

BTW, Claire’s friend say that Claire is the most like Apple Jack since she is honest, dependable, and helpful.

The official portrait of the Main Six ponies.
The official portrait of the Main Six ponies.

Finally, a Sleepover

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Claire and Maddie enjoying a bedtime story together.
Claire and Maddie enjoying a bedtime story together.

Finally, after many months of patiently asking and waiting, Claire got to host her first sleepover.  Claire had spent the night at her friend Maddie’s house a while back, and now we got to return the favor.  We ordered pizza and watched A Dolphin Tale.  The girls stayed up little late, about 10:00 or 10:30, with Claire telling Maddie “scary stories that weren’t that scary.”  Maddie is accustomed to sleeping in somewhat later than Claire.  However, Claire convinced Maddie that they should get up at 7:00 am since sleeping in late amounted to “wasting precious play time”.

We set up the “sick bed” for Molly in our room to avoid messing up Claire and Maddie’s scene (and to avoid a madhouse with Molly in there).  The sick bed is the portable, inflatable mattress we use when someone is vomiting, etc. and needs to stay in our room.  Molly saw the bed and asked who was sick.  Kit said that the mattress was the “fun bed” tonight.  Molly liked it.  She got to arrange the covers and pillows just so, taking a lot of care with it.  She was very cozy and seemed to enjoy sleeping in our room.  It took her over an hour to fall asleep, although that is normal for Molly.

 

Molly enjoying the sick/fun bed
Molly enjoying the sick/fun bed

The kids played the next morning until Maddie’s parents got her around noon.  There were some challenges in the morning with not sharing the Wii, etc. and maybe some homesickness on Maddie’s part, but overall we just had a quiet morning.  Claire’s friend Harper had suggested that Claire “order donuts” for breakfast.  I asked Claire what that meant, and she said she didn’t know, but Harper usually “orders donuts” when she has a sleepover.  Is there a donut delivery service I am not aware of?  Anyways, I ran up to Howdy Donut and waited in line for 20 minutes to get some pretty great donuts and some really awesome sausage kolaches (one each per person).

So it was a nice, cozy sleepover with an old friend.  Claire loved the idea of a sleepover and is already planning her next one.  She is actually randomly inviting girls she is sort of friends with, and who have never ever been to our house to play before, for a sleepover just because their mom is there.  That is how much she loves sleepovers.

Siri’s Friend

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We were all watching the movie version of Charlotte’s Web when the topic of the narrator came up.  I thought the narrator was Bob Newhart.  Kit said it was Sam Shepard (she as right).  Molly asked what we were talking about.  We said it was the voice talking off screen that you can’t see.  Molly said the narrator is probably Siri’s friend.

Siri actually comes up more than you would think in our daily conversations.  Claire and I like to try to stump her or faze her, but she is unflappable.  Claire even gets to be mean to Siri sometimes, which is probably fun since she isn’t mean to anyone else.  And we can always make fun of poor Siri for lazily falling back to “I found this on the web for you.”

Siri just wants to help.
Siri just wants to help.

Big Fun: Lice and Flu

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As the title suggests, things have been kind of, uh, gross around here lately.  While the girls were down in Corpus Christi for a few days over the holiday break, I came down with the flu.  I had the flu shot a month or two ago, so I guess that limited the “severity and duration” of the infection but still, ouch!  I had three terrible days where I could barely sit up, etc. and watched enough TV for a year.  It was either great timing (since I didn’t have to take care of the kids) or terrible timing (I was planning to get a lot done while the kids were away).  Then a few more days gradually recovering.  A few days on the bench was a big kick in the pants.  Damn you, flu!  Kit never got the flu, but she did spend night after night awake coughing with allergies or a cold or something.  We were a barrel of laughs for New Year’s Eve!

Molly enjoys waiting for Claire at Mad Caps
Molly enjoys waiting for Claire at Mad Caps

When the kids got back from Corpus, Claire was complaining that her head itched.  We decided to take her to a “lice salon” called Madcaps Salon to literally have her head checked.  Claire did, to our surprise, have lice.  On a positive note, Claire loved the lice salon.  She got to watch Netflix on an iPad and eat Doritos while they massaged her hair.  She said she loved it and wanted to go back.  Luck for Claire, I took her back the next afternoon for the full treatment, and also took Molly in to see if she had lice.  Molly did not have the lice.  Neither did I.  So that was a relief, and sort of a miracle.  Claire’s treatment took 2+ hours.  They have to do it by hand, strand by strand, since the lice are resistant to all the easy treatments.  Molly sat with me and watched The Rescuers on an iPad provided by the salon while I tried to work on my laptop.  Molly loved it too and asked many times to go back in the succeeding days.

So we’re doing lots of extra laundry and disinfecting around home and trying to avoid sharing our various bugs with each other.  Plus a comb-out routine for Claire and some other lice prevention.  No more gross things shall infect us going forward!  I can’t wait to get back to just simply hugging the girls without worrying about transmitting something awful.

2013 in Review

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For the first time since Molly was born, this year we finally included a “year in review” letter with our Christmas card for friends and family.  The previous three years featured only a picture (nice and easy!), but this year, Kit picked a Christmas card which had space for some text.  Just a little space, actually.  It turned out to be a challenge to fit all of 2013 into a few sentences.  Brevity is the soul of wit, and what not.  So here it is: 365 days in 126 words.

20131208-year-in-review-a

20131208-year-in-review-b

2013 provided us with literally no dull moments.  Molly (age 4) amuses us and confuses us every day.  She is by far the smallest and loudest member of our family.  Claire (age 8) is a patient and kind big sister and a My Little Pony aficionado. Claire started 2013 believing adamantly in fairies and ended the year wistfully wishing they were real. Kit continues to practice pathology.  We keep reminding ourselves that pathology is a family-friendly specialty.  Pat still works for Verizon and has moved into mobile apps.  Other skills mostly involve shuttling kids around town.  When not keeping Austin weird, travels this year have taken us to London, Chicago, and both Washintgon’s (DC & WA).

Happy 2014 to all!