Big girls don't need bandaids

I think we have our little girl back. No fever for almost 2 full days now! It is so good to see her smile and have energy to play. She went to preschool yesterday and it was my day to volunteer so I was able to peek in on her frequently. I had so much fun watching her listen to the teacher's directions and follow them and to see her interact with the kids in her class. She loves preschool and I got to see her in action yesterday. Once home, she surprised me with the amount of energy she still had. I guess she had built it up over the past few days! We played on the trampoline, on the swing set, and around the yard. I got a scratch on my knee and she has a scratch on her nose. She compared our scratches and went on to tell me "I don't need a band aid Mommy because I am a big girl. Big girls don't need band aids, they are for little girls". After we got that all figured out, she helped me water the bushes. While I cleaned out the grass in the pool, she got naked and decided to sit on the front step in the pool and clean it. Whatever keeps her happy!

How was your weekend?

This weekend was one of the more scary times of my life. Claire was diagnosed with a sever bladder infection that had made its way into her kidneys. I knew something wasn't right when her Doctor was waiting in our room for her to return from getting a urine sample. He said he wanted us to go to TX Children's Hospital immediately for more testing. Claire has never been sick before and to watch her in such misery was almost unbearable. She spent most of her weekend in the hospital crouched up next to Sheila, moaning in discomfort. They hit her with some strong IV antibiotics and a steady doses of Motrin and Tylenol. She would show signs of improvement and then her fever would come back. It was two days of ups and downs. Through this whole ordeal, I can assure you of one thing. There is nothing as frightening as watching your little girl walking through the halls of a Children's hospital, toting her IV pole and repeating how all she wants is to go home. I hope we NEVER have to experience that again.

Whoever said the twos were terrible...

Claire has been challenging me lots lately. We have entered the terrible threes in full swing, at least for me. Claire seems to be the perfect angel for Jeff. For me however she tends to be whiny and wants to be carried all the time. I work very hard at staying patient and trying to distract her from whatever is causing the whining. Some days are easier than others. For anyone that has children, I am sure you know what I am talking about! We have our great times, don't get me wrong. I would not trade this challenging time for the world because when the times are good, they are really good. When they are not so fun, it makes me appreciate every single good time I get to share with my amazing daughter that much more. If every day was sunshine and roses, we would take them for granted right?

Our busy day

 I started my day off by working on my very first project for preschool. We were given a house and had to place pictures of our family on it. Mommy let me  do all of the gluing and placing of the pictures. I also got to add some smiley stickers! Daddy loved it when he saw it!

 Tah-dah! My final project! I am very proud of all of the great looking people in my house and I can't wait to show my teacher and all of my friends at school!

 After working so hard on my project, I felt Mommy and I needed to do some shopping. We set up a jewelry section, a cell phone section, a shoe section, and an animal section. Then it was Mommies turn to shop. In the above picture, I was helping Mommy find a necklace that matched her outfit. She sure is picky about her jewelry!

 Mommy finally finished shopping and came to me to check out and pay. After spending lots of time in my store, Mommy ended up owing me $330.00! She better go back to work and stay out of my store for a while!

Finally it is my turn to shop. I had lots of fun checking out each department in the store.

 Once we were done shopping, it was time to give my baby a bath. Mommy let me use her tub and pretend to wash up my baby. She loved her bath!

After my baby went down for a nap, Mommy put me to work again. This time she had me dust. I love to help with dusting and went with Mommy to each room in the house and got all of the dust. Since Mommy had so much planned for me today, it was a good thing I woke up at 6:20am to have time to get it all done!

Playing with friends...and Presley

 The cash register is always a big hit with whomever comes to play!

 This looks like it could be trouble  in a few years!

 Playing with Cyrus outside, now that we have some days below 95 degrees!

 This also looks like it could be trouble in a few years!

Hanging out with Presley!

First day of preschool

Well, the big day finally arrived : Claire's first day of preschool.  Jeff and I had very mixed emotions about this day. The school we chose does a car line which means we drive up, a teacher takes her out of her car seat, and walks her to her classroom. I thought Claire would either get very scared and start to cry, or ask and beg for Mommy to come with her. She did neither of these things. Claire let the teacher unbuckle her, and with a big smile on her face, jumped out of her car seat and let the teacher help her put on her backpack. She then proceeded to walk hand in hand with the teacher to her class without even looking back! I guess she showed us! We were both so very proud of her at that moment. Mommy and Daddy were not so strong however and both shed some tears as we drove away.

When we picked Claire up 5 and a half hours later, she stood on the sidewalk waiting for us with a teacher. When she saw us drive up, her face lit up and she smiled so big! She came to me and gave me a big hug and was so happy. She said she had lots of fun at preschool but would not share many of the details with us. The only thing we found out was that she went on the yellow round thing with some girls on the playground and some boys wanted to ride on it but they had to wait until the girls were done. Oh, how I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in her class today! Our baby girl is growing up way too fast.