Leap Girl

Kendall Virginia is 6 months old.
Today.
February 29, 2012.
Leap Day.

I owe her some pictures. Real pictures. Not sub-par cell phone shots like the one you have here. And I will get some of her, as soon as the camera is charged. And the planets align.

I have been looking for the camera for days. It was last seen in the hands of a certain toddler who chooses to remain nameless. This morning I asked her where the camera was. She laid down on the floor of my room, peeked under the bed and ran down the hall. "Uh Oh!" Giggles. I should have trusted her, but a quick glance under the bed showed nothing. Tonight I realized that the day had gotten away from me. No camera. No pictures. I offered a $5 dollar reward to anyone able to find the camera. A mad search ensued. Nada. I grabbed a flashlight and decided to give the under bed one more look. And tucked WAY back against the wall I saw a silver glimmer. There is was (much to the chagrin of two older girls who have both asked to share in the reward). My guess is that Avery was looking at pictures (she loves to turn on the camera and look at the pictures) and dropped it down between the crack that is between the mattress and the headboard. And she knew it. Hence the "Uh Oh!" and the looking under the bed. The running and giggling? That is just her maniacal sense of humor.

When you drop a camera in a crack when it is on? It is found with no charge. Which probably didn't matter, because during the time that I was smashed under my bed trying to reach the camera, Avery was busy drawing on Kendall's face with a pen. Which, after much scrubbing, left Kendall with a marked up face and a bad attitude. Not the lovely one you see above.

And with a sister like Avery, Kendall is lucky to have reached this milestone. And will be luckier still to reach a year. Avery tilts her head to the side and makes the sweetest sounds of "Aw, baby." While whacking Kendall over the head, burying her with pillows, sitting on her, or trying to stab her eyes out with a pen.

Kendall will just need to learn to get up and RUN. And she needs to do it soon. It is a matter of survival.

6 month stats:
Height: 25 inches (50%... Say WHAT? Can this be??? Here is our TALL one. No one else has ever peaked over the 10% for height.)
Weight: 14 lbs even (5-10%... the words long and lean were used. Considering the thighs on this girl, I laughed)
Head: 15 3/4 (5-10%... Smallest head of any of my girls. But she is already smart enough to get a look of terror on her face when approached by Avery.)

She is already scooting herself around. On those rare occasions she actually gets put down. She must know that her survival depends on movement. She babbles a lot. Some days more than her big sister. I hear Mama A LOT. Again, learning to call out to the one person who can rescue her. She is sweet tempered, cute as a button and downright charming. She is the fourth chamber of my heart. The one that beats outside of my chest. I cannot imagine my world without her.

And so, we embark on the next 6 months with a great big LEAP of faith.

006 Standing Tall

Monday we had a Well Check turned Sick Visit for Ellis.

We went to get her 6 year old stats and left with the bubble gum medicine for Strep throat. (which she hates and I have to give it to her like you would a cat. Every other kid on the planet seems to like it. I can't test it out myself, due to allergy, so who knows.) Bummed that for a girl who had never been on antibiotics before Kindergarten, that she has been on them 3 times in 3 months. She had only been OFF of them for a week (she had a double ear infection last time and Strep the time before. Sigh)

We also left with a prescription for Zantac for her to use at bedtime. The dentist was concerned that Ellis has acid reflux. The doctor didn't want to treat her because she doesn't cough, or have sleeping issues. UNTIL she looked at Ellis' back molars. She has severe acid wear pitting on her back teeth. The dentist took x-rays and assured me no cavities. But it does look FREAKY. I guess the acid has been pooling in the back of her mouth while she sleeps. Now that her 6 year old molars are coming in we need to protect them.


Ellis 6 year old stats:

Height 42 inches (3-5 percentile)
Weight 36 lbs (3-5 percentile)

Perfectly proportionate. And able to chart.

Secret Agent Princess 006

I am horribly behind. Must catch you up on December.

There were a few birthdays. (and by a few, I mean MANY, MANY)

One girl I know, who is choosing to remain nameless as to protect her life as a secret agent and princess, turned 6.

We went out to a family Hibatchi dinner and ate cake and ice cream.

 Later that week, the Princess had a few select friends in for High Tea...

and ate more cake and ice cream.

Squirrel-hog Day

It's Groundhog day and Punxy Phil has predicted 6 more weeks of Winter. Call me crazy, but looking at a calendar there are 6 and a half more weeks before Spring hits. I think his power of prediction are seriously overrated.

We started our day out with some serious cold. As in no furnace. The "it must have stopped while we were sleeping" cold. The thing is that I knew that this might happen. I had been warned. Earlier this week there were some loud banging noises that sounded like an animal in the furnace room. There is a door from the furnace room to the garage and it was ajar so I thought maybe something came in that way... I opened the garage door and gave it some time. It got quiet. Figured we were done. Fast forward to that night, my mom had been watching the girls and said that she heard some noise in the furnace area, too.

24 hours later. No heat. Ellis dressed for school next to a roaring fire. It had ambiance. But did nothing to heat the rest of the house.

Figured that a bird or a squirrel had fallen down the flue. Phil (not Punxy in case you were wondering) and Jessica to the rescue. They came over and Phil took apart the flue near the furnace and informed me that that indeed there was a squirrel. It actually sounded like "OMG! Ugh. Get me a plastic bag. And gloves. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. He's wedged in here good." Jessica was laughing hysterically. Chase, who was home sick, was gagging just from the thought. And I was just hoping no one would make me look.

So, for us it was Squirrel-hog day. Punxy Phil may have predicted 6 more weeks of cold winter weather, but the squirrel removal has made it possible for us to stay warm during that time.

Public service announcement to all the squirrels running around on my roof. The furnace flue is not a good place to try to call home.

In unrelated news: Kendall is now 5 months old. Here is a shot of her playing with Chase this morning.

 Could she be any cuter?