Princesses Coming Out Our Ears

I'm getting an early start on some decorations for Bella's birthday in hopes that the actual day will be as stress free as possible. Her birthday (and party) is on a Sunday, and Sundays are always more stressful. It will be a small party, just some of our close friends - Bella's "aunties and uncles". The party items that have my little "Martha Stewart heart" all excited, though, are the hats. We're doing a very loose princess theme, and I made princess hats with things that were already in my home! No wasted money on party supplies!

These hats are my current pride and joy - I made them by printing off pictures of as many Disney princesses (or princes) as girls and guys that were coming. Then I glued them to scrapbook pages to make them larger. Finally, I stapled strips of cute fabric to the tops to add a little more flair than just using ribbons.

.

The gang's all here! I didn't include Snow White, because I have a confession...I loathe and despise Snow White. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's the insipid princess songs she sings, but needless to say, Snow White did not make an appearance on the party hats.

Tried to get a picture of the backs to show the fabric tassels. The boys got regular silver ribbon; let's be honest, the boys don't care what's coming out the top of their hats. I'll be lucky if the two little boys even wear theirs.

My new favorite princess - Rapunzel from the movie Tangled. I like that she has freckles and isn't as "done up" like some of the others. I'm probably putting way too much thought into the Disney princesses, but when you spend your whole day with two years olds, you think about stuff like this.

So, yes, I'm about 2 1/2 weeks early, but it's fun being done with a big part of the decorations already. Now, on to planning the cake...I saw a tutorial on the Betty Crocker website that I want to try.

I Scream, You Scream...

Okay, so it's been quite a week! I got the stomach flu on Tuesday and it was awful! ("Awful" doesn't even being to describe it!) I felt like death for a full 24 hours, and we had Steve's mom and dad coming into town that night. Thankfully, I was starting to feel much better by Wednesday afternoon (I even convinced Steve to order a pizza for lunch), and we've had a fun time with everyone! On Wednesday night, we took Mom and Dad to a frozen yogurt place called Pink Berry - it's amazing! Lots of fresh fruit toppings! We got Bella her own little cup of yogurt with strawberries and mangoes, and she ate it like a big girl.

Steve and I have been talking for awhile about getting a seat to put on our bike for Bella to ride in. I grabbed one at WalMart this morning so that Dad could help us put it on. She loved it! She does NOT like her helmet yet, but I think we may just let her fuss with it on until she gets distracted riding in the bike. She and Rex both got a turn, and they both actually squealed with joy as I rode around the cul-de-sac with them. Riding on a bike is one of the activities that Steve's physical therapist has him do, so he should be able to do it just fine. I'm looking forward to getting out on a real trail and letting Bella enjoy the view!

Mom and Dad walked Bella and Rex down to the playground in our subdivision. We are not wrapping her arm as often anymore - she seems to be healing really well - but we go ahead and do it when we think she might need the extra support. We wrapped it for the playground so that she would remember it was hurt and not overdo it. I think we're going to wrap it for the next few Sundays, so the nursery workers remember not to pick her up.

.

"Is That the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?"

This weekend, Mel and I drove to Chattanooga, Tennessee to attend our church's annual women's retreat. This is my 4th year attending, and it is always a blessed event! It provides some much-needed girl bonding time, as well as always refreshing me spiritually. This year we met at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel which is located in the actual historic train station. Some of the rooms are even in the old train cars themselves!

After arriving on Friday evening, Mel and I dropped our bags in the hotel room and decided to walk around downtown. It's a cute little city and the weather was gorgeous! Saturday was divided between three sessions, lots of good food, and the longest game of bingo ever! my favorite thing from the weekend was that we had a chance to give each other communion on Friday night. We passed around pita bread and a glass of grape juice, and we held the bread for the woman next to us while saying, "This is the body of Christ; broken for you." Then we held out the cup for them to dip their bread in and said, "This is the blood of Christ; shed for you." It was a really special, intimate time.

Chattanooga is home to our dad's alma mater, Tennessee Temple University. Of course, we had to take some pictures around town! Here we are in front of the university's sign.

I have an old black-and-white picture of my dad catching a soccer ball as a goalie in college. We found the soccer field, but there was a fence around the whole thing that was locked. I thought it was completely logical to try and climb over, but after getting to the top, I was a little worried about ripping my new pants!

Okay, okay, Mel convinced me to come down off the fence and just take a nicely posed picture in front of the fence...with the goal in the background. We had a great weekend!

Living With Houdini

First, the "official" story...we were at my parents' house this weekend for my birthday, and on Saturday morning, Bells was climbing all over the dining room chairs (she's a climber). She started to slip and ended up falling on her shoulder and side. She cried the usual amount for a minor fall (she can be a drama queen) and moved on with her day. Nothing seemed to be the matter...she favored it at times, but nothing too serious.

The main indicator that something was hurt was her reaction whenever we tried to pick her up under her arms. She would yelp and grab her neck. I know that seems like something is obviously wrong, but really, she would always get over it very quickly, so it seemed like she was just a little sore from her fall earlier.

We had dinner on Saturday night with a family friend who used to be a doctor and he was the first to suggest a broken collarbone. He didn't examine her, but he did suggest that I...wait for it...push on her collarbone! I told him that he was more than welcome to push on it himself, but I was not going to push on it when I had no idea what I was feeling for. Even then, we all decided that it was probably just bruised and she was not reacting strongly enough to have any broken bones. (stupid us!)

After church on Sunday morning, we had another friend who is a Fire captain and EMT look at her, too. Her was coming off a 12-hour shift, but he looked at her playing and said it looked like she was too mobile for a break and she probably had pulled a muscle in her neck. Steve and I decided to wait until we got home to take her into urgent care.

We took her in on Tuesday night and she received full x-rays, etc. The doctor said that , yep, she had fractured her collarbone! Oh my goodness! We were a little incredulous and felt really bad for letting her suffer for four days. I guess we couldn't really have done anything. The doctor had her fitted with a small sling and then wrapped her arm in an ace bandage to keep it tight to her chest.

Which brings me to our little escape artist...

.

This is how she's SUPPOSED to look with her arm wrapped. Well, not her face, but her arm and body. I know she looks miserable, but she's just being ornery in this picture and didn't like the fact that I was taking her picture. She pretty much reacts like this anytime I pull out the camera.

.

Here she is, all wrapped up with her sweater over her left arm to keep her from messing with it. She is sitting in her new booster seat, which she loves, and coloring contentedly like a big girl!

And this is what I walked in on this afternoon. We hadn't put her over-shirt back on after naps and she managed to get her entire arm free! The ace bandage was still wrapped around her waist like a weight belt. I re-wrapped her for the FIFTH time today and let her go play...

My 28th Birthday!

I'm catching up on posts, can you tell?

My birthday was a week ago, and in addition to taking me out to a wonderful, baby-free dinner, Steve also planned a surprise party with Mel!

The party was just with a few friends, and at the last minute, one of our girlfriends got really sick, and another one had to help a friend in labor, so it ended up being a VERY small party!

It was a total surprise and we had a great time eating chocolate cake and playing games.

Hugging my friend, Carolyn, after they all surprised me!

Blowing out the candles...luckily, I didn't have to blow out all 28!

Mel and I stopped cleaning up to take our "sister picture."

Thank you for my birthday party, Steve!

Road Trip!

I only have two pictures from our trip to Florida (most of the pictures were taken on mom's camera), and I don't have a good one of Bella in her sling (I will soon, I promise!), but Bella did so well in the car that I had to post this picture of her on our way home from this weekend. She was a happy little camper and kept herself busy. I brought some books along, but honestly didn't think they would work to entertain her. I was wrong! She looked really cute!

.

This is a cute one with Bella and her Florida Grandpa. They walked down the street on Saturday morning to check out a garage sale. Bells is not great with strangers, but she wanted to go outside so badly that I think it distracted her.

.

Bubbles!

I couldn't resist sharing one of Bella's Easter gifts early! She gets to play with bubbles every Sunday in the nursery, and she loves them!

Little House Of Horrors

Bella tends to be a pretty sturdy kid. She'll cry at the drop of a hat...or the slightest trip, but she rarely gets legitimately hurt. With that in mind, the last 18 hours or so have been a little rough on the kid. Last night when Camryn's daddy came to pick her up, we stood around talking, and suddenly noticed that there was blood on one of the chairs. A quick investigation of each child revealed this...

I have no idea how she got hurt, she never cried, and as you can see, by the time I got to her, the blood had pretty much dried up. My closest guess is that she scraped her knee on the fireplace, but I'm still not really sure.

This morning, Rex walked up to her and shoved her a number of times until she finally lost her balance and fell into the TV console. Let me just say real quick that I was present during all of this and was making my way (apparently in slow-motion) across the room to try and stop Rex. And before it sounds like Rex is a menace, I should fairly point out, that Bella can dish out her own share of shoves. Most of Rex's wounds have been self-inflicted from his own clumsiness, which I actually think is a little lucky so that I don't look like the worst childcare giver known to man.

Yes, I do realize that you can barely see the mark on her forehead.

So there you have it...I don't know if she felt like she wasn't getting enough attention (guffaw!), but she got plenty when I discovered her knee was pouring blood and she had a nice goose-egg on her forehead.

Water Baby

I put Bella on the counter to do her hair, and she "shimmied" over to the sink to play. It's crazy how much she loves the water, but hates to take baths!

I love how her little belly roll is hanging out of her Christmas PJ's. We're waiting to buy new ones until the weather gets warmer.

A girl has to make sure her toes are clean!

Bella's First Visit To Urgent Care

I should have known I was tempting fate when I was talking to my girlfriend last week and telling her that Bella had never been to urgent care. Bella has never had worse than a bad cold, and we consider ourselves very lucky to have never had to deal with pneumonia, ear infections, or anything else. On Monday, after her nap, Bella was stepping down the stairs and took two steps when she thought she was only taking one (make sense?). She ended up twisting her ankle underneath her and couldn't put weight on it afterwards. We decided to take her into urgent care when it started swelling slightly.
.

I called a girlfriend with 4 children who have basically set up shop at urgent care for a recommendation on a good facility. Rex's daddy wasn't able to come right away due to his work schedule, so Steve stayed home and I took Bella in by myself. I have to say, the urgent care people were just wonderful! They were better with kids than Bella's pediatrician! From the way they talked to her to the way they touched her leg; it was clear they were used to dealing with kids! Bella, on the other hand, was not quite as pleased. She wasn't in any serious pain, but still couldn't put weight on the ankle, so I had to hold her on my lap in a waiting room that was designed to keep kids busy - it was torture!

They took x-rays of her leg from her hip to her foot, and everything looked good! The doctor said it was probably just a sprain and to let her go easy on it for the next couple of days (not an easy task for an independent toddler who doesn't like to be restricted). I'll save you the explanation of the actual event of taking the x-rays. Let's just say, there was a part of me that actually wished the ankle HAD been broken, just so I knew we were suffering through this for a good reason!

I'm glad we took her in, and we're SO THANKFUL that it was nothing serious. She is walking on it pretty well, but has a little limp that is just so pitiful! She definitely favors that leg and walks close to the furniture so that she can hold on. What a little trooper! Thank you, Children's Healthcare!