Twisted Xmas Carols

T is learning xmas carols in school, and is constantly singing them. Its really funny b/c she totally twists up and garbles the lyrics. I'm posting them here for posterity....

Jingle Bell Rock:
"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell lots"

Angels We Have Heard On High:
"Glo-o-o-o-oooo-o-o-o-o-ooooo-o-o-o-o-ooooor-ia, in ex chinese dedo" (dedo is the spanish word for finger)

Felix Navidad:
"Police Navidad, Police Navidad"

Deck the Halls:
"Deck the halls with holly holly"

I'm trying to document all the "little girl" things she does, as I doubt she'll be doing many of them for long. She's just growing up too fast!

Meanwhile, the tooth survived today at school, and remains in her mouth at a very skewed angle...creeping me out! T has quickly realized this, and is showing it to me all the time. Sigh.

Hanging On by a Thread

No, we're not talking about me or my nerves. We're talking a fleshy somewhat bloody thread. Turns out the comments to the post regarding T's front tooth missing from last week were quite prophetic. Turns out the second top-front tooth will be gone soon, as well. Its literally hanging by a thread in the child's mouth.

Meanwhile, I'm no help at all. I can take most kid "ick" stuff, but not the wiggling tooth. Just literally creeps me out to see it. I am absolutely incapable of pulling it out of her head. Hopefully the gang at school can assist with this task.

So, there you have it. All my careful plotting for black friday and worrying about her gifts has been for naught. Turns out she really will want her two front teeth for xmas...and a whole lot more stuff, as well!

The Kid Can Wear a Dress

T received this beautiful dress from her godmother, Aunt Ceci. She immediately wanted to try it on and wear it.

Yeah, she gets to open her Ceci presents early every year. This year two were wrapped with boas around them, so she's chosen to open them first, of course. A present and a boa. A win/win situation if ever there was one.


She opened this gift on Friday, and she'll open the other one this coming friday.

I immediately asked to take a few pics of her in the dress, which is just too adorable for words.

These pics are the result.

Good lord.

Never have I seen a kid ham it up like she does. Guess the play modeling they did in summer camp stuck. Too bad for her that I doubt poor T will ever break much more than 5 feet tall. I figure 5'2" tops.
Anyway, thank you Aunt Ceci and the entire Sayre family for the cool gifts!

Coral Gables Xmas Park

Today we ran errands and then visited a park in Coral Gables that they decorate for xmas each year....with decorations circa 1965. T loves it. I hate it.

I hate it b/c they simulate snow with this fine white sand. It gets EVERYWHERE.

I've learned since the first year, when I had sandals on. This time we wore sneaks with socks. Still ended up with shoes full of sand.

We then drove around looking at lights and came home.
Last night was a xmas gathering at T's school. No pics, as she literally did not stay still long enough. She spend the whole time with a few kids from her class, running at the speed of light and playing an odd form of "keep away" with a nerf football. The grass stains on her leggings look black.

We'll see if Spray and Wash's promises hold true.
I have grave doubts.
Meanwhile, is anyone else having a spectacularly UNINSPIRED xmas gift shopping experience? Usually, I can find one cool thing, and give that to all my friends.

Last year, it was a label maker. No one was that thrilled with it, i think, upon receipt. But EVERYONE throughout the year has mentioned how they're always using it. Quite the handy device that everybody needs but doesn't know it.

This year, nothing is coming to mind.

Oh well, at least I've got a bit of time left. Perhaps a little Nog and Bourdon as I peruse the sales ads will assist!

RED LIGHT

Hmmm, hot on the heels of all the excitement over her tooth, T comes home today with a frickin' RED LIGHT. An almost impossible feat, as the kids are ususally given a number of chances. It was the talk of aftercare.

Mrs. Maranges, her old preK teacher said that you have to be really bad to get that. Upon cross examination, T confessed that she was playing in class, looking very contrite. However her friend Lauren who was standing right next to T, piped up with the further information that T got a red light b/c Taylor put scissors on Lauren's head. I then look at T, who started bawling. Yep, clearly a confession.

Luckily, T said she did it b/c she wanted to, and had no intent to cut poor lauren's hair, which I beleive. I suspect, and rightly so, that the teacher feared T was about to scalp the kid, upon seeing T with scissors at lauren's head. I'll find out more tomorrow, when I drop T off and have a word with the teacher.

So, T is unplugged and punished for two whole nights. More if she's not good in the next few days.

Beauty school is definitely NOT in my kids future (assuming mom has any say in the matter), so T better get over her scissor fetish now. I see lots of long talks in the coming days.

Wish us luck!

The Tooth Fairy...has a hacking cough!

Guess who lost their tooth today in school? Not just any tooth either...her FIRST top tooth in the front.

Details are sketchy, something about at snack time and Joshua making her lose her tooth by making T kick herself in the face with her knee. Not sure how he managed that! Of course, a long lecture about "just say no" ensued upon my hearing this bit of nonsense.

The teacher sent the tooth home, taped to this cute "I Lost My Tooth" certificate.

Meanwhile, my hacking cough continues. Went to the doc, who actually gave me some antibiotics and other drugs to fight it off. She's a real miser with the meds, so I'm not sure what this says about my cough. In about 10 years seeing her and many, many coughs, this is the first time she's ever given me any. I usually have to scarf them from urgent care centers, who hand them out like candy.

So, that's that. Gotta to and practice my recurring role as the tooth fairy.

Busy Saturday

Today was Nick's 5th birthday party at Pump It Up, which is a kids' party place filled with inflatable bounce houses and slides. T had a ball.

After bouncing around in two different rooms for about 1.5 hours, it ends with the kids having pizza and cake. They even provide loot bags. This one was filled with some sidewalk chalk, so T has been having a ball playing with it all.

That's T in yellow, and me in blue. One knows its T b/c of the hair, and one knows its me b/c of the glasses.

And yes, she's still sporting the Rapunzel hair extension.
Meanwhile, its literally beginning to look alot like christmas, all around the town. We went off to the mall for dinner, specifically to view their huge xmas tree. Its about 3 stories tall (and fake). But that's OK, it looks great every year and provides a backdrop for lots of good pics. I was thrilled how these came out, given they were taken during the dead of night.


We're back home now, watching some new xmas shows on TV: Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda xmas shows. Boy, with the sole exception of the grinch, the modern shows are just so much better than the old classics from our time. Beyond compare.

Now, if i could only get my xmas shopping done on time.

Tangled Trance

Do my pics look extra-clear? They were taken with my new snazzy hot pink camera. I love it! Here's a bit of T's Thanksgiving artwork I thought I preserve for posterity.
Meanwhile, on top of taking T to the movie, Dot got her the doll. Well, the doll came with a hairclip that has a bit of blonde extension hair.

T insists on wearing it.

She's already campaigning to wear it to school, but I've said a firm NO. T's school frowns on hair extentions, dyed hair, and crazy hair in general.

So, poor T will have to settle for expressing hair self at home...or at nicks party, to which I am allowing her to wear it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi all,

Hope your thanksgiving was very happy. Ours was. Dot cooked up a storm. For some reason, the turkey this year is CRAZILY good. FREAKILY good. Neither Dot nor I understand it, but we're going with it! I think between the 2 of use, we've already had 4 or 5 turkey sandwiches since lunch yesterday.

We loaded up all the food, and hauled it over to my parents house. It was nice to all be together. We left them around 3, watching Miracle on 34th street, and came home to nap. I needed to nap b/c I picked up a bug in the ER at the childrens hospital. I've had a hacking cough and runny nose for a couple days now. Plus, generally feeling like crap. I stayed home and Dot and T went out to the movies to see Tangled. Both came home RAVING about how good it was.

This morning on Black Friday, I was up at about 4:30. T got up around 5:30. As I was headed out to the mall, T starts saying how she want to come too. Talk about TOTALLY blowing my shopping strategy. How the hell can i buy her presents when she's with me. So, I let her come and figured I'd shop for everyone else.

Unfortunately, I was totally uninspired. I got a few nightgowns for my mom, and the rest was a Carol Christmas.

I scored a new Cannon Elph camera, a new iron, and one of those magic bullet mixers albeit an off-brand. On TV, the real magic bullet is 99.99 for two. In BB and Beyond its 59.99. In Macy's, I picked up an off-brand for 19.99 with a 10.00 mail in rebate...and I promptly LOST my receipt and rebate docs. Grrrr. Isn't that always the case?

So, we're home again about to eat some more leftovers. Tomorrow we have a birthday party and Sunday will be a day of rest. I'm just worried b/c T was coughing a bit at the mall. Hope she's not picking up what I have.

Carnival Calamity

I had a feeling that we wouldn't survive the carnival without some type of calamity. Our luck just isn't that good this year. I worked 2 hours at the corn hut...the hut that sells corn on the cob that's been cooked on the grill and slathered in butter...while my sissy, T, and our friends rode the rides. After I got relieved of duty, I had a bit to eat and then we walked around a bit more. T wanted to do the bunge jumping ride...where they strap the kids in the harness and they jump up and down with the aid of elastic bunge cords. She had to do it "one last time". Its always that "one last time" that does one in, isn't it?

This year, t got brave. She started doing backflips as she was in the air. Also doing all kinds of poses. She really was a joy to watch. and no, she never had a mishap that we could detect, never landed on her head, or any other dire circumstance. She got off the ride, and as we were walking to the car, started complaining that ther "back shoulder hurt". By the time we were home, she was complaining alot.

Gave her some tylenol, and we went to sleep. We woke up the next morning, and the child couldn't hold her head up straight. She had it bent toward the opposite shoulder about which she was complaining. Seemed a bit stiff when moving. I started worrying.

We had a brunch to attend, so I decided to go and watch her to see if it got better during the day as she started moving about. It didn't. I started talking about taking her to the urgent care center. All those first aid classes I've taken, that were always talking about how tricky neck injuries could be started playing in my head. Plus, all the tort cases from law school involving carnival rides. My stress and worry levels started going through the roof as I'm imagining a partially paralyzed child. Aye, aye, aye.

Of course, the (less insane) parents with more than one kid were saying to give it a few days, to which I questioned, that if this had happened to their FIRST kid, what would they do? They immediately conceded that the'd go off to the doc as well.

So, at 1:00 I decided to brave the zoo of Miami children's hospital ER. Decided to go there since they have her on record with MRIs and other xrays. We were released at about 6:00 p.m., with the diagnosis of....brace yourselves....

A STIFF NECK.

Sigh. They believe that it was just a muscular strain or pull that has to work itself out. They gave her a dose of muscle relaxer...VALIUM... (albeit a very small dose) and sent us on our merry way. I tried to con them out of the left over dose of valium for me that they were throwing in the garbage, but they refused darn it. I briefly considered the efficacy of dumpster diving, but refrained.

So, T puts me through hell with worry and SHE gets the valium. That's just wrong.

As predicted, she seems better this morning and her head appears to me markedly more upright.

So, there you have it. Our carnival calamity. I seriously believe that I suffered more from it all than T!