Master of the Bike

I learned a valuable lesson from Grace last Sunday. I have been trying to teach Grace to ride her bike over the last month after finally getting fed up with training wheels. I never used training wheels and after my experience with Grace, I don't think I will use them with Hattie.

While Grace is still young, I was starting to think that she would never master her bike. Being the cyclist that I am, I was getting a little frustrated with Grace's slow progress and I'm sure that caused some of the problems as Grace and I were not happy with each other after some of our practice sessions.

Anyway, about a month ago I was finally fed up with training wheels. Much to Grace's chagrin (and plenty of tears) I took off the training wheels after a particularly difficult practice session. After we both calmed down, we spoke about things and Grace made the goal of wanting to be able to ride her bike by Memorial Day. We started going to large and empty parking lots to practice and I would run behind her with one hand on each of her shoulders. I found this to be the most effective technique as I could put pressure on her when she started to lean and she learned to correct her balance and relieve the pressure.

We made some good progress, but Grace was still lacking confidence. Last Sunday I got home late from church and I was in no mood to go out in our driveway and practice with Grace. However, Grace realized that it was her last day to master her bike to reach her goal. I tried to tell her that it was OK, we could practice the next day and it wasn't a big deal if she didn't master her bike by Memorial Day. This did not sit well with Grace. She told me that she had set a goal, and it was important to keep it. She was right. She reminded me that it is important to stay true to your goals and so I went outside with her. Within 10 minutes she was riding by herself. Now, after almost a week she is becoming quite the little cyclist. It won't be long before we start doing some rail trails and other fun rides together.

Good job Grace, and thanks for reminding me of important things.

too much fun, or just too much?

I haven't updated our blog in a couple weeks because we have simply been too busy to report on what it is we're doing. People who facebook me know what I'm up to, but the Grandmas are probably suffering for some details and some pics.

I can't decide if we've been having too much fun or if things have just been too much. I had such a tumultuous, long, dark, winter that "May" must have sounded nice and relaxed. The birthdays would be over, the weather would be better, I would be feeling better, kids wouldn't be sick anymore, right? I don't know what I was thinking when I registered Grace for swimming and riding lessons and Hattie for swimming too (at a different pool on a different day!), on top of Grace's ongoing karate class. I also somehow scheduled every single doctor/dentist check up for the girls this month. The kids have also been playing quite a bit with friends (well, quite a bit for my standards) It's been crazy. On top of it, I've been really feeling badly that I haven't taken my kids on any big outings for a long time and so I planned a big trip to Boston for us last Friday when Grace had a day off from school, right before we spent the whole weekend getting our yard and house ready to host a Memorial Day BBQ yesterday. Plus, I refuse to give up "having a life" so I continue to go to dinner group, book group (keeping up with reading too!), attending special events, even went out to dinner with David last week. I feel like I'm coming close to the phrase "running to stand still." I can't keep up with my work at the barn (which is much heavier this time of year), RS stuff, and YouthLINC tasks, let alone the regular mundane sorts of things around the house.

My car which used to be able to run on a tank of gas for 2-3 weeks is now going through a tank a week, or more. At the end of the day I wonder if any of it was worth the trouble or the expense, or if we would have been better off staying at home. I am a home-body. I feel best if I've been home for at least most of the day (although I do like to get out here and there.) I hate feeling like we're only home to change clothes, sleep, and maybe eat. But, at the same time I feel super lucky and blessed to be able to go and do all that we do and that my kids can have all these experiences. I guess there's a balance in the middle somewhere, but I think I missed the middle spot this month. Hopefully June will bring us back to the middle after some of these lessons are over and we don't have to go to so many appointments. School doesn't get out until June 25th in these parts, so we're still nowhere close to "summer vacation!"

Here's some of what we've been up to: (more on flickr)

(Hattie sitting by the pool at her first swim lesson.)

(Grace riding Tink at her first "real" riding lesson!)(Hattie hanging out with Wesley during Grace's riding lesson.)(the girls all ready to go to their friends' "Pirate/Princess birthday party"!)(trying out the "hand bikes" at the Boston Children's Museum - using "kid power" to generate enough electricity to run some moving parts up above.)

(Katie Clifford and myself, meeting up in Boston to see each other for the FIRST time in 15 years! And, as she stated, it felt like only 15 minutes had gone by... we picked right up where we left off, it was awesome.)(watching giant fish, sharks, rays, sea turtles, and about a thousand other kinds of sea creatures in the enormous tank at The New England Aquarium.)(just outside The New England Aquarium on the Wharf)

(Grace and her best friend, Eamon, on one of their many recent playdates.)

snakes and (bugs) and puppy dog tails...

No, we're not announcing a baby boy. I have 2 little girls who care more about the snake in the garden than they do about sugar, spice or anything "nice."

This is just a bunch of random stuff rattling around in my brain, but the first thing is that I NEVER thought I would welcome a snake into my yard as much as I did this one. I don't hate snakes and I don't run screaming, but I don't love them either. I could never watch "Snakes on a Plane", I'd have nightmares forever. Still, after the INUNDATION with black flies and now mosquitoes in our yard, the snake was a welcome, quiet, and unbothersome guest.

I am really about to lose it with these black flies. I don't even remember them being here the first 2 years we lived here. (I think the first year I didn't go outside in my yard because I was always at the barn during the day in the spring, and the second year, I just seriously didn't leave my house for a whole year with baby Hattie.) The third year, last spring, I did notice the flies. I didn't know what they were, but one day I took Harriet outside and she just started crying for no reason. I could see little flies buzzing around, but in my experience, little flies are usually harmless. (I would run from a giant horse fly though.) I took Hattie inside and to my horror found about 12 blood-red bites all over her body. The flies had gone inside her clothes and bitten her all over. They do draw blood and leave a blood blister that develops into a huge lumpy red welt with a crusty sore. I called the doctor and they said she'd be fine. Great. After a few days, I didn't see anymore flies. The neighbors said that once the dragon flies come out, they eat the black flies and it's over in a week. Ok, I could deal with that.

THIS spring, oh my gosh, these flies have been here over a month. They are vicious. They are repelled by nothing. We have had weeks of absolutely gorgeous weather and I've stayed inside almost the whole time. EVERY time I go outside - even just to get in the car, one of us is bitten. Harriet's entire hairline on her head is so covered by fly bites that it has made her lymph nodes swell up into huge marbles all over her neck. It's disgusting! I used to think the mosquitoes were bad. Well, at least you can wear OFF for them and swat at them! Dragon flies where ARE you?

So, a little, cute, non-poisonous snake who actually might EAT some of these bugs? You are welcome at my house! That's the other thing, in 4 years, I have NEVER seen a snake in my yard. When we moved here, I thought for sure there would be snakes all over with all of the water around. My neighbor who has lived here for 50 years said she's never had a snake in her yard until this spring? What is UP with the animals this spring? Global warming? Armageddon? I am at war, that's for sure.

The snake has wandered off now, but he stayed in one spot in our garden for a couple of days. The girls went outside to check on him (her?) often. Grace named it "Garter of the Garden" or "Guarder of the Garden." We're sure it was eating some of our froggies and hopefully some mice. We hope it didn't eat "Peeper", a frog who also resides in our rock wall.

Onto the puppy dog part. Today is May 13th. Grace has decided to officially name May 13th "Pet Day." She has planned a celebration for days to have with her dogs. She is so funny about stuff like this. It started when we were talking about Mother's Day and thought that pets need a special day too (I'm sure someone has come up with some lame day where you're supposed to shop at PetSmart for an official Pet Day, but I don't know when that is.)

So, Happy Pet Day to all. Give your doggie or kittie or whatever you keep in a cage an extra treat today and play with them more than normal.

shiner

It's a good thing that we took pictures of the girls LAST week. Now, before I say more, I'll do what the school does when they call the house. When you see the school caller id on the phone and you know your kid is at school, you panic before you even answer. They know this, so the second you say hello, whomever is calling immediately says "Grace is ok, this is not an emergency call." Whew, ok, you can keep listening and, now you can keep reading. Grace is ok.

Yesterday Grace had one of her worst childhood injuries. Next to the burn when she was two, this one probably ranks second. Nothing life-threatening, nothing that even took us to the emergency room. Still, enough to make your stomach fall flat. (I know - some of you are moms of wild little boys who are on a first-name basis with the staff at your local emergency room and you'll think this is totally wimpy, but, it was really scary for us!)

This is actually the second time I have seen a close friend of mine covered in Grace's blood. No one is really sure what happened. Grace won't say and no one else really saw, but it basically boils down to kids running wild in the gym after church while parents clean up and a 12 year old boy's head colliding forcefully with Grace's nose - right between the eyes.

I had just left her in the gym, maybe not even a minute had gone by when a lady came up to me and said "Sister Chapman, Grace is in the kitchen with a bloody nose and she needs you." She didn't say how or why, so I thought she must just have a regular bloody nose. I walked to the kitchen and as I came in the door, I saw Bret Bahe (yes, the very same Bret who photographed the girls last week!) standing there with his white shirt totally splashed and covered with blood. Then I saw Grace sobbing while David had a wet paper towel held up to her nose. Grace was covered in blood from head to toe too. Her new favorite blue dress that she wore for the first time yesterday, her white sweater and even her white shoes were all splattered (someone asked me later about the floor of the gym, didn't even think to go check it...)

It took a while to get the bleeding to stop and about 3 hours to get the crying to stop and an hour to get the blood out of the clothes (yes! saved the blue dress!) She was so traumatized. She doesn't deal well with getting hurt or any sort of attention that is out of the ordinary and she's been that way ever since she was burned as a toddler. Thankfully, we have a few in our ward who are physicians and they come in handy often. Dr. Hangen looked at her nose and assured us that it wasn't broken and there wasn't a laceration inside, so we decided not to take her to the ER. Otherwise, I'm sure I would have done just that.

Anyway, I mentioned that this was the second time I have seen a close friend covered in her blood. The first was actually just after she was born. I feel like it's a journaling opportunity since we didn't have a blog back then. When I saw Bret's white blood-stained shirt yesterday I had an instant flashback to the day Grace was born. I had a close friend, Sara, who was a labor and delivery nurse come to the hospital with me that day. She helped me deliver Grace naturally and was there when she was born. Just after Grace came out, before I even saw her myself, before they let David cut the cord, I saw my friend Sara get totally sprayed and covered with blood. She was also wearing a white shirt that day. Now, I know that child birth is not a tidy business and since it was my first, I didn't know what to expect. However, no one had told me to expect this kind of carnage.

No one said anything or explained it so I thought, wow, it must be worse than I had imagined and didn't think anything else of it. A few days later, Sara called to tell me what really happened. She said that just after Grace was born, her umbilical cord ruptured and the artery burst all over Sara. It is NOT how things normally happen, and it was a very dangerous scenario. The reason no one said anything was because my OB doctor had delivered a baby just 2 weeks prior who had died of the very same freak occurrance. She was so distraught that it had happened again that she soundlessly and quickly worked to take care of it and couldn't bring herself to tell me since everything turned out ok. If the cord had ruptured in utero, one or both of us could easily have died. Luckily that wasn't the case and we felt like it was a huge miracle and a total gift that Grace was safely out when it happened.

Still, I have this image of Sara and now of Bret standing near me where I can't see Grace yet and they are covered in Grace's blood. It's an image I don't care to repeat a third time, please! I am so grateful, though, that Bret was there and that he is a close enough friend that Grace trusted him to grab her and pick her up and help her. Thanks for being there for us Bret. We owe you a white shirt and probably a plate of cookies too.

As for Grace's shiner, a picture really doesn't show it very well. It's just starting to turn green and the swelling is nice and even. But, she's going to have 2 black eyes this week, that's for sure. Look at last week's pictures instead :-)

Photo Shoot

Our friend, Bret Bahe, is setting up a new photography business. He just did a photo shoot of my kids this week. I'm doing 3 cheers for Bret! If you live in our area, you should TOTALLY use him if you have a special photography project to do. Everything he does is top quality, actual photography. None of the mall-type pictures, and nothing is photo-shopped in afterwards. The pictures are exactly as they were taken. He does amazing things with lighting and all the photos are just natural shots of the girls - nothing canned. Look at how the faces just pop out of the picture.

I'm totally thankful to Bret for taking such beautiful pictures of my girls. Hattie was a tough customer though. She would NOT cooperate and give her million dollar smile. Her assortment of scowls and "crusty" faces are actually pretty hilarious. In any case, he definitely captured her personality, the little stinker.
He took 182 shots, so this is just a tiny sample.