And we all fall down.

Eventually everyone's kids fall down right?

Either off the bed, down the stairs or some other way. Right?

Well...we had our first day of trauma in the Hooper House this week.

IT WAS AWFUL. But it could have been lots worse.

To make a long story short, the baby gate wasn't up and Laney fell down 6 stairs. Six hardwood stairs. There was screaming and there was blood. A LOT OF BLOOD. Maybe not a lot, but any amount of blood coming from your own child is a lot.

She was really scared, as were Kevin and I, but once we got her calmed down we realized the only injury was a small cut on her forehead. I called the doctor's office and they had us come in right away. After an hour of waiting, we finally saw the doctor. She said stitches or glue.

Is there a choice?? We had enough drama for the day and choose the glue. So, our baby came home looking like this:

Four days later she is doing fine. The glue has come off and it was bleeding a bit, so Laney is making a fashion statement with gauze and a Hello Kitty bandaid across her forehead. She is also sporting a yellowish green bruise on her cheek.

Conferences

As a teacher, I am usually the one who gets to talk to parents about all the wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) things their kiddos are doing at school.

Today, the tables were turned.

We had our first parent-teacher conference for Lucy. When I first saw it on the calendar, I giggled and thought "how cute." But as the day approached I found myself getting nervous. I know what she can and can't do academically, but I always worry about her socially. The way she retells what happens at school, sometimes make her seem like she is a wallflower, always getting pushed around.

Her teacher, Miss Cyndi, confirmed what we knew about her academic skills. She can recognize her numbers, colors, shapes, some letters; tell her address and phone numbers; draw a person, a circle and her family. She also showed us something else we discovered this week...Lucy has some serious cutting skills! She followed the line and cut out a perfect heart!

Socially, Lucy is doing great. She plays with all the girls in her class and has a great time. Miss Cyndi says that no one ever messes with her...that she is the sweet, polite girl of the class.

We are so proud of our little girl. It's hard to believe that she is on the home stretch of her first year in preschool. I hate thinking that my baby is growing up, but am so happy about the little girl she is.

A Dip in the Pool

Friday afternoon I packed up the girls and their swimsuits and off we went to the Y for a dip in the pool. Lucy has always loved going swimming, and since Laney loves to take bathes and showers I was excited to take her for the first time.

As soon as we enter the pool area I feel Laney tense up a bit. She was very unsure of this new atmosphere. This was coming from the baby who bangs her head against the shower door until we let her in. We entered the water, I was determined to at least let Lucy have a little bit of fun, and Laney starts crying.

Lucy is splashing and jumping and completely enjoying herself and Laney is crying. I was doing everything I could think of to make it better for her, but nothing was working. I wasn't going to let Laney get in the way of Lucy having fun so I decided we would just deal with it for 30 minutes.

About 20 minutes into our pool adventure, Laney figures out that this pool is like a gigantic bathtub and maybe isn't so bad after all. Both girls ended up having a fabulous time and taking great naps Friday afternoon!

Lucy has already told us that we need to go swimming more often...and I think we will!

My Valentine's Day Present

These were my Valentine's Day present. Aren't they incredible? These are all pictures of the pictures, so the look even better in person! I can't wait to get these blown up and framed so I can just sit and stare!

Valentine's Day

Everyday last week seemed like Valentine's Day!

Lucy was so excited about her party at preschool! She personally signed her name to all of her Valentine's and did a GREAT job at that! All she could talk about was giving them to her friend's, and which Valentine's she might get from them. I bet most could probably guess the ones she picked out...

PRINCESS!!!

She came home from school on Wednesday with her tissue box decorated and filled with cute cards from her friends and teachers. There were Hannah Montana, Dora, Spongebob, a candy race car....and many others! She played with them for the rest of the week. She knows who gave her which Valentine and wanted to sleep with them under her pillow Wednesday night!

Thursday the celebration continued. Laney was getting fussy way too early in the evening, so we decided to give the girls their present. Laney got a Fisher price bird bath toy and Lucy got a black and white polka dot purse with her name on it. Both loved their presents. However, I got the best present. Kevin got pictures of the girls taken for me. It was a complete surprise and maybe the best gift he has thought of!

Friday Lucy and I made heart shaped cookies for her to take to Claire and Landon's house. We had fun decorating and snacking on them! She was so funny, she only wanted to push down the cutter and then she was off to play until it was time to cut more!

Valentine's Day itself had the least amount of celebration. Lucy left with Nana early that morning to visit her cousin's in Bentonville and we just hung out with Laney. We enjoyed a nice lunch out and a little bit of shopping and that was that. It was nice to spend a quiet day and weekend with my hubby!

Silly Goose

The weather we had here in Kansas the past few days has been spring-like and the we have taken full advantage of it! Yesterday the girls and I went to the zoo for a little bit. Lucy cracks me up when we go to the zoo because she is so excited to see each animal, but once she lays eyes on them, she is ready to move one. I get lucky if I can get her to spend 5 minutes at each exhibit. Good thing we have a zoo membership, so we can come and go as we please.

One of her new favorite things to do is feed the fish. She always checks to make sure I have enough money to buy fish food before we leave the house. We usually feed the fish on our way to the barn animals, but I found a little dock yesterday that was empty and figured those fish were hungry. I pushed Laney up so she could see from her stroller, gave Lucy the food and we started feeding the fish and a few ducks.

It seemed as if all the ducks and geese were in a frenzy. I'm not sure if it was the warm weather or if mating season is happening, but they were CRAZY. Honking and quacking and down right obnoxious.

So, back to feeding. I was talking to Laney and she was smiling and looking at the fish popping out the water, when all of a sudden there was a huge WHOOSH.

Then some HONKING and lots of SPLASHING.

All of the made Lucy scream, me jump and Laney cry. A goose came and crashed our party. In the end Lucy and I were cracking up and Laney stopped crying, eventually.

It definitely was a zoo trip to remember.

Wonderful Weather

Yesterday was PERFECT. The high was near 70 and there was no wind. Lucy and I spent the afternoon at the playground and in the backyard while Laney was napping. We slid down all the slides and swung for a bit, then ran around and chased each other before taking a short walk home. When we got home, Uncle Dave was pulling in the drive. Lucy was so excited, and Dave walked with Lucy into the house and straight into the backyard.

After playing basketball and soccer for a bit out back, Lucy grabs her watering can and heads over to the faucet, turns it on, fills it up and waters her flowers....or dirt. It was the funniest thing. That led into making footprints and then we decided that Ribby was thirsty so Lucy gave her some water too!

The girls and I finished out the daylight hours by loading them up in the stroller and taking a nice, long walk through the neighborhood.

Off to Africa

I went out with some friends one night to celebrate a birthday and this is what I saw when I came home. Lucy led me straight to OUR room and OUR bed was completely covered her HER stuff. This is how the conversation went.

"Oh my Lucy, you were busy."

"I know, I really outdid myself."

"What is all this for?"

"It's our airplane. We are going to Africa tonight."

OK.

****************

Other notable things Lucy has said of late.

*While looking through a catalog with me, "Mom, I'm just not crazy about that one."

*Kevin and the girls went to eat the other night with my parents while I was at conferences. She started in on left and right and got them mixed up. They were trying to correct her and she goes "I just really don't care.

I Love my Carseat....now

Now that Laney is everywhere, one of her favorite spots to be is in her carseat. She crawls to it all the time. She loves to eat the straps, climb in and today she even pulled herself up it in! She is a crazy girl!

Like Father, Like Daughter....Kinda

Tonight Lucy and I were playing her version of baseball. She was using the stick from her stick horse as a bat, and our ball was a little CareBear. She did pretty good. I almost got hit a few times because I was watching how she was keeping her eye on the bear. For a 3 1/2 year old, I think it's pretty amazing!

Other ramblings:

*While thumbing through a catalog the other day with Lucy, she told me "I am just not crazy about that one mom."
*Laney is crawling fast, everywhere. We think she has almost figured out what the word "NO" means. She gives us a little smirk when we say it!
*Laney loves to sit in her highchair and eat finger foods. She has mastered the art of getting a majority of anything into her mouth. She also has learned how to hold her own bottle, which helps in the car! Maybe I won't have to climb over the seats anymore!

Visit from Virginia

I'm back! The book isn't quite finished, still working on the cover, but I'm ready to be back to blogging!

A couple weeks ago we had a nice visit from dad's family in Virginia. My grandmother Doris, my great aunt Helen, and my aunt Phyllis and Tommy all came out for a weekend. It was a fun weekend, and the girls enjoyed getting to know family that they don't get to see very often!

Lucy fell in love with Phyllis. She still keeps talking about the next time Phyllis comes!

Tommy and Laney. Tommy is just a kid himself!

Doris is teaching Lucy how to gamble!!!

And it wouldn't be complete without a picture of Helen. Sorry Helen, this is the only one I could find with you in it! She was teaching Dad some yoga poses...I think.