Soccer!

Some of you may know that I've been coaching Clara's 3 year old soccer team. It's been an adventure for sure! (And it's EXHAUSTING!)

 Our Dallas Dinosaurs in action! (We were assigned the city but I got to pick our mascot :)

To tell you the truth, Clara isn't much of a soccer player. She'd much rather eat a snack, watch the clouds, play the sand, etc. She DOES like to kick the ball when it happens, and she's terrific at stopping the ball by falling on top of it and grabbing it away from other players, but that's not really the idea unless you're a goalie, and there aren't any goalies until older ages. BUT I'm glad we're giving it a shot.

I'll never coach again though.

Grandpa, girls & Daddy

With MeMaw and Paw about 3 minutes before the rain hit

Post game snack is the best part!

always the cones!

Another game this Saturday!

Our Weekend: ER, Skating, Party

I know I've skipped lots of happenings recently and I'll add posts from the last month or so as I find time, but for now here is a post about our weekend. It was a fun one!

Most of it was fun anyway. It started with a literal bang on Friday, though, when Emma's head met the edge of the recliner. That was one of the scariest things I've ever seen in my life. She paused for a second, dazed, and then passed out on the floor. When she regained consciousness both eyes were going in different directions, she couldn't get them to look at anything and she was as limp as a rag doll. I freaked out and demanded Bryan call 911 because it had been more than 5 minutes since the incident and she wasn't doing any better. We gathered everything to go to the ER and she threw up and lost consciousness one more time. Man that was scary. I called my Mom to let her know what was going on and she told Papa who ended up meeting us at the ER. Bryan stayed home with Clara.

In the end she was diagnosed with a concussion, but no further damage. We had to wake her up every 2-3 years at night and keep an eye on what her eyes were doing as well as watch for a list of symptoms which would indicate we needed to return. Praise the Lord, we did not. She's doing much, much better now!

(And the giant goose egg on her forehead matches the black eye she's got nicely. Sheesh!)

To cheer Emma up on Saturday morning we went for a little walk around the block. She loves riding in the Tula.

And Clara loves taking a babydoll for a ride just like Mommy.

I love this picture

Later we went to the park and Emma wore baby on her back.

The girls did lots of climbing and swinging and sliding.

weeeee

Clara pretending to be a dinosaur

After nap time (Emma took one, Clara did not), we decided to do something new and exciting. The ice rink by us is only open seasonly and Monday is the last day it will operate until the next Thanksgiving. Bryan was skeptical, but I said we should give it a try.

Ready to go!

Even Emma Lou put on some little strap on double blade ice skates. She and I just held hands and went around the tiny little bitty kid's rink (seriously, it's this 12x12' area walled off for only tiny kids). I don't have any pictures or video, because, well, I was holding her hands. And she only wanted to skate for a little while, so about 20 minutes she was all done and we turned in our skates to watch Daddy and Sister.

Clara was such a natural! Bryan, who is a very good skater, was impressed and really happy that she enjoyed it.

Learning in the itty bitty rink

The lighting was atrocious, but I was able to get a little bit of video.

Then Clara and Daddy did several laps around the big rink:

I was so proud of her!

Emma started to feel left out so Daddy just held her and did a few laps which she loved.

Daddy and Emma

Clara did some dancing and grooving while we waited for Daddy and Emma:

Then we were all pretty chilly, so at Clara's request we got some hot chocolate and shared.

Followed, ironically, by ice cream :) Okay, okay, dinner THEN ice cream.

Funny story: we went to Rico's for dinner and this time there was a live musician playing. The girls were ENTHRALLED and clapping and waving every time he started a new song or finished one. I gave each of them some money to put in his tip jar while Bryan paid for our meal and after putting the money in the jar they interrupted his song to give him hugs and high fives. He was so nice about it too! He asked for their names and dedicated the next song to them ("You are my Candy Girl") while the girls twirled and danced and head bobbed in front of him. When the song was over everyone in the restaurant cheered for the girls and they gave the musician one more round of hugs and high fives before saying bye bye. It was so sweet!!

A little evening dress up before bed

This morning before church Emma did a little more babywearing.

This is what Clara wanted to wear to church:

That would be a pair of knit tights, leggings, a skort, a dress, a 6 month sleeper on her arms, a necklace and a 0-3 month hat. 

Emma was stylish too, of course

After nap time (again, Emma took one and Clara did not, the stinker), it was time for a birthday party! Connor, a classmate of Clara's, had a birthday party at ASI Gymnastics. It was so much fun and now that's where I'd like to have Clara's 4th birthday party.

They had so much fun sliding into the foam, jumping and playing games. 

Emma cracks me up. She was definitely the youngest one there and didn't care a bit, just did her own thing and kept up as best as she could. I thought it was hilarious when they'd run the kids around and Emma would be moving those little legs as fast as she could. Precious girl.

The rope swing into the foam!

Emma sliding into foam:

and slow-mo because it's fun, hehe:

One more:

They had so much fun. They were pretty excited when it ended with juice, cheeze-its, fruit snacks (which Emma couldn't have), and cupcakes! yummm. The only part of the cupcake Emma ate was picking off the sprinkles one by one, but Clara actually ate about half of her cupcake not just the icing! that's a first.

Busy but fun weekend!

Allergy Testing & Paint Nails: All About Clara!

Today was a BIG day for Clara. First, she went to The Woodlands Wellness Center with us to become a new patient and get tested for allergies. I was rather nervous about the entire experience, and decided that even though they are super anti sugar I'd take a lollipop anyway, just in case I needed a bribe. 

This place is so far from being child friendly, let alone child proof, that it's outrageous! I was thankful when Clara stopped pretend feeding the ceramic birds with the glittery breakable pumpkins and started playing peekaboo with the curtains instead. Yes. THAT'S how un-child-friendly this place is! I'm so thankful we didn't end up needing to pay for anything broken.

 

To give herself a little extra dose of bravery this morning Clara decided to wear her Elsa dress. It wasn't until we were there that she told me the REAL reason she decided to wear it: "See Mama? My arms is all full so no one can poke with me shots." Excellent thinking kid! I'm sorry it didn't work for you.

Playing with the muscles and fatty tissue models:

She was also given a sticky note and "Elsa" gloves to keep her out of mischief 

In order to help the process, Clara was given a ton of numbing cream and then wrapped up in cling wrap to keep it working. She was baffled and not super happy about the process. She was better once we pulled her sleeve over the wrap.

After taking her weight (32lbs) and her height (37") and her temperature and blood pressure, we met briefly with the doctor which resulted in being given some recommended supplements that will hopefully help with the serious sleeping problems she has plus the asthma and eczema. Then she was ready to get those shots. Okay, not really. She was terrified and not at all happy :( But it was time anyway!

Okay.... fast forward 30 minutes or so, after 11 pokes, so. many. tears., and a lollipop (ha! mommy knows best) Clara was doing better. It was about as awful as I expected, and my arm and ab muscles got an excellent workout holding her steady while they did the testing. 

It turns out that she's allergic to lot of weeds and grasses, as well has having severe allergies to mold and dust mites, and an extremely severe allergy to eggs! I'm so glad we did the testing. I knew there had to be something causing her flare ups, and I just didn't pin down eggs as the culprit. No more scrambled eggs for her on Sunday apparently. I feel pretty awful about that. They did tell us to not just abruptly eliminate ALL eggs because her system would go into shock and that's what the allergy drops are for anyway. Yes, DROPS. Not weekly shots, but a daily drop under the tongue. I know, I know. WHERE have these been my entire life!? Anyway, so very small amounts of eggs are ok, but no more than that. 

She refused to put her sleeve back on the rest of the morning.

Back to smiling thank goodness. Look at all of those pokes :(

 As we were about to leave she started bawling all over again - I'm guessing the numbing cream was wearing off. I asked her what would make her feel better and she told me "candy and breaf-ix" between sobs. I thought, "why not?" so Daddy, Clara and I all ate at Olive Garden for lunch. And in case you were wondering, yes, that's all she ate - 3.5 breadsticks, one bite of salad, and 2 Andes Mints. Superior parenting, people. Oh well.

We thought about it later, trying to figure out why on earth she thought of bread sticks, but realized the last time she got a shot at the doctor's office (a steroid shot for a particularly bad infection) we went to Olive Garden afterward. Shots = breadsticks. Who knew!? We started our own tradition. This child remembers everything!

After a few ROUGH hours at home involving no nap and many tears, I decided we needed to do something extra special and fun to turn our day around. Thus, Clara's first manicure and pedicure happened! The place near us has a small room off to the side that's rather well ventilated and has these adorable little pink chairs with butterfly wings on them for little people to use, plus an adult sized chair right next to it. 

Clara was in HEAVEN. She picked her color, and the gentleman trimmed her nails, filed, buffed, painted them and then even put these cute little flowers on her thumbs! She kept telling him, "wow! you do a good job!" - I'm not sure if that's an indirect criticism on my usual nail painting job or if she just truly was impressed, haha. 

She was floored when he rubbed her feet, clipped, filed, etc. and painted her toe nails and added little white flowers to her big toe nails too! At this point she said, "Wow. You paint my paint nails next time, not mommy, ok?" Ha! You'll get regular purple polish and like it, little dude :) Maybe I'll add glitter or something next time to up my mommy game. 

Getting a close up on her toes

Waiting very carefully for mommy to finish 

She was too scared to put her shoes back up and cover up her flowers, so she walked barefoot back to the car, happy as a clam.

Showing off her flowers - too bad they don't show up very well here

 CB: "Look Mommy! This leaf is prettier next to my paint nails too! Don'tcha think?" hehehe

The perfect photo to represent the juxtaposition of the happy/sad experiences from today.