Summertime

Like every other summer in Texas, this one has been loooooooong and hot.

We've had lots of fun playing with friends and cousins, going to places like Burger Lake, the museum, the train, pump it up, Gigi's pool and the library.  

However, most of our time is spent at home and while every moment is not cute, cleaver or picture worthy, I want to remember the ones that were...

Sometimes (although not as often as the girls would like) in the summer, we take baths like this.

 

 Sometimes after naps, we just play and wrestle on the bed.

 

 

 

 

 

  Sometimes the fun comes to an abrupt end, when someone knocks their noggin.

 Sometimes Daddy gets home in time to take over entertainment.

 Sometimes Anne recreates movie scenes with her stuffed animals.

  And then serves them tea.

 It seems like Anna is more often in character than not these days.  

Something that has surprised me is how much watching movies or clips of movies has stimulated her imagination and given her ideas. 

 She watched a youtube video of Circle of Life from the Lion King and completely recreated the scene herself.  

Earlier this summer, we read Charlotte's Web and then saw the movie.  After seeing the movie, she pretended to be Wilbur for days and always wanted me to be Fern.  It cracked me up that she had Haven be Templeton the rat, but kinda makes sense since she is always wandering around getting into things.  

As cute as Anna's directed pretend play is, conflict arises if Daddy, Haven or I don't play our roles just right.  Something to work on!

Cool Cut

 After 3 years and 3 months, it was finally time to trim Anna's hair.  I was talking it up before we went and told her that it was going to look so pretty.  She said "I'm going to be pretty like Daddy!".  I thought for a second about how to respond and realized that Brad had just cut his hair the day before so I just smiled and agreed.

 

 Since she might only get her hair cut every three years, I decided to splurge for one of the kid friendly salons. :)

When her hair was wet and straight, it went halfway down her back.

 She watched Nemo and loved the whole experience.  She got about 4 inches cut off but because of her curls, it is hard to see much difference.  Guess we'll be back when she is 6!

First Trip to the ER

Last week when I went to pick Anna up from school, I was getting her backpack and chatting with her teacher when I heard a bang followed by screaming.  She had seen me by the door and was leaning back in her chair trying to get my attention when it slipped out from under her.  During the fall, she split her chin and it was bleeding everywhere.  She didn't want to let me put a papertowel on it and only wanted to put her face on my shoulder. 

By the time I put her in the car, she'd stopped crying and her chin was no longer bleeding .  She finally let me look at it and the cut reminded me of when I had to get stitches in 4th grade.  I called her pediatrician and they told me to go to the Cook Children's Hospital ER because they don't perform stitches. 

We only had to wait about 10 minutes before they got us in and immediately confirmed that stitches were needed.  They put some lidocane gel on the cut and we headed to the wound care area.

We were lucky to get a child life specialist who was great with Anna and prepped her for what was about to happen.  It also helped that she had an iPad with a Curious George movie. 

They wrapped her up like a little burrito and didn't make a peep as she was glued to the iPad.  I asked what they did before iPads and she said she would read books, dance, sing or do whatever it took!

Of course, the promise of a popsicle and toy also helped.  I told the technician that the little tiger was the most expensive stuffed animal we will ever have.

We returned a week later to get the stitches out and Anna insisted on bringing her tiger.  She did great again and we were in and out in 8 minutes.

 

 Anna has a doctors kit that she really hasn't played with in a few months, but we have played with it everyday this week!  I always volunteer to be the patient so I can lie down and rest. :)