Beating the Heat

Today it was 94 degrees and humid. As soon as we got up this morning, we closed all the windows and shades and turned the air conditioning on. We went outside as little as possible. This morning Lydia had violin lessons and Jayson took Audrey and Charlie to the gym. Lydia told me as we got in the car, "It is sweltering out here." We did venture outside to go to the farmers market because our favorite corn guy had promised the girls free ears of corn the next time he saw them. As soon as we walked up, he grabbed a freshly husked ear for each of them and they dug in while he sang, something he's well-known for. Then it was back home. I took Lydia and Audrey to see Brave. The girls insist we all share a bench seat so we can cuddle, and I can't really argue with that. We all loved the movie. There were some parts that were scarier than I expected and I held them a little tighter. During one particularly scary scene, I looked down at Audrey and asked her if she was OK. "Yeah," she said as she dug her fingers into her popcorn," I just got a seed in my mouth."

After the movie we came home for dinner, and then Lydia had a baseball game tonight. I was hoping it would get canceled due to the heat, but no such luck. She did great. She still hasn't had a hit off a pitch (just the tee), but she played catcher and did a great job. At one point, I overheard a boy on the team ask her when her bedtime is. She responded, "Seven. Sometimes eight. Sometimes even nine. One time in a hotel, I stayed up until eleven." He gently grabbed her arm and said, "At your age, you can't be staying up that late. You need your sleep."

Tough as Nails

We took the girls to the dentist a couple weeks ago and Audrey had a cavity. Jayson and I both were relieved that if one of them had a cavity, it was Audrey. Audrey is the child who asked the nurse for the flu shot instead of the flu mist, and watched with no emotion as the needle went into her arm. Today was her appointment to have it filled. We didn't want to give her too many details about what would happen. We basically told her she had a cavity and the dentist would fix it. She was pretty excited because she loves the dentist. When we got there, an assistant we had never met called her back, which I think threw her off just a little bit. I think the assistant would have preferred if I had stayed in the waiting room, but I wanted to be there, and Audrey wanted me there. I made sure to sit in the corner and not say much.

They gave Audrey some laughing gas, and I'll admit I was a bit disappointed it didn't make her more loopy. It pretty much caused her to ignore everybody. The entire time they worked on her mouth, she stared straight ahead with her mouth open. The dentist laughed and made jokes and asked her questions and she just stared straight ahead with her mouth open. No tears, no flinching, no complaining. When it was all done, she just looked at me and smiled.

We told her she needs to start using our toothpaste to prevent cavities. She likes the fruity taste of hers better. Tonight I told her if she doesn't use our toothpaste, she might have to get another cavity filled. She told me that's OK. It was fun.

Little Sluggers

Lydia and Audrey are playing baseball and tee ball this summer. It's through the West Allis rec department. Lydia has practices Monday through Wednesday and games on Thursday. Audrey has practice/games every Wednesday.

Audrey is the smallest on her team, having turned four just a week before the league started. She loves it and seems especially fond of running the bases. I didn't get to go to her first practice because it was also Lydia's last day of swimming. I was very excited to go to her practice yesterday. So was she. She kept running up to me all day to tell me tidbits of information, including, "Mommy, they guy (I'm assuming it was her coach, and not some random guy watching a bunch of little kids play ball) said I can't blink when I hit the ball. I can't blink. I have to keep my eyes open." I asked her to show me how she does that and her eyes got very  big as she pretended to swing a bat. On an adult, it would look like a zombie hacking at an innocent human, but on her the look was endearing. She also told me, "Mommy, after practice, we get juice and snacks. But only the people practicing. If you don't practice, you don't get the juice and snacks." Got it. Practicing is clutch if you want the juice and snacks. She also has throwing technique down pretty well, but only in slow motion. You can almost see the gears working in her brain as she slowly puts her left foot forward, brings her right arm back, rotates her arm forward, and releases the ball.

Lydia has an additional obstacle in the fact that she doesn't get a tee. It's coach pitch baseball. In a game, if they get three strikes, then they get a shot at it with the tee. This happened every time she was at bat for her first game tonight. What was great, though, is that she wasn't even that great at hitting it off the tee, so it would dribble off and land a couple feet in front of her and she could easily get a base hit. This resulted in her actually scoring a run, which she was very excited about. I'm glad she can even hit it off the tee because she has my uncoordinated genes in her. There's a reason I run. Anything else is too complex. I bike too, but Jayson makes fun of me every spring when I have to admit that I forgot how to shift during the winter.

What was really great about Lydia's game was how involved she was in it. For every batter, there was a cheer of "Here we go, (insert name here), Here we go!" Every single batter. Every single pitch. And it only got a little bit old after the first inning. She also did a great job watching the game, even when it was her turn to sit on the bench when they were fielding. She just sat there and watched. When she was fielding, we were worried she would be a little space cadet in the outfield, but she actually ran towards balls! I was very impressed.

A Weekend Away

This past weekend, we went to Minnesota to visit friends. It was a nice mini-vacation. We had a doctor appointment for Audrey first, though. We finally found out that she had shingles, it wasn't contagious, and there was medication for it. Exactly what we wanted to hear! So, we hit the road. Our first stop was Chippewa Falls. We met our friends Brooke and Steve there (they were also going to Minnesota for the weekend) and went on the Leinenkugel Brewery tour. We had done the tour five years ago, the last time we visited the same friends in Minnesota, but it's a fun tour. Lydia even paid attention for a lot of it.

The next day we headed to Minnesota. The first stop was the zoo, which was great! They have a dolphin there, which the girls had never seen before in person, so they thought that was neat. There was a dinosaur exhibit that terrified Charlie. Audrey begged to go on the monorail, so we did that too.

On Sunday we went to a water park. To our surprise, Lydia loved going down the slides. She usually is more cautious of things like that and needs a lot of convincing, but she walked right to the top and went down without hesitation. We were so proud! Audrey loved floating on the lazy river, laying on my lap. It was so relaxing. I found out that while I was on the lazy river with Audrey, Lydia had decided she was brave enough to go off the diving board and discovered she really can't swim and a lifeguard had to rescue her. Not too long after that, it started to rain with no sign of letting up, so we had to go. The girls really enjoyed themselves, though, and really want to go to a water park again soon.

Monday morning we headed home. We stopped in Madison for lunch with Grandma Deb and then were very happy to get home!

Our First Cavity

We took the girls to the dentist today for a routine exam. It turns out Audrey has a little cavity that needs to be filled. We're telling her as little as possible about it, just that she gets to go back to the dentist in a couple weeks (they love the dentist) because there's an owie on one of her teeth and the dentist needs to put medicine on it. Luckily, she won't be getting a shot of Novocaine. I guess they use a numbing gel now. Also, luckily, she's our toughest kid, so it won't be as bad as if it were Lydia or Charlie.

The Mystery Ailment

Sunday night Audrey woke up complaining that her arm hurt. Monday night she woke up complaining that her arm hurt, and then a little while later, her hand. I discovered a bunch of red bumps on her palm that looked like tiny blister under the skin. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and he was not very concerned about the arm pain and told us the bumps were a virus similar to hand, foot, and mouth disease. He told us we could give her ibuprofen for the pain and as long as she didn't develop a fever, she would not be contagious after a couple days. He said it would spread and probably last a week or two. Tuesday night, whe woke up with arm pain again. Wednesday morning, we saw that the bumps had indeed spread to her arms. Wednesday afternoon after her nap, the bumps had spread up her arm and were no longer blisters under the skin, but raised blisters with liquid in them. She also complained more of arm pain and would not use her right arm. I took her in to the doctor again, but our regular doctor was out, so she saw a different one. This doctor was stumped and concentrated more on the arm pain, but found nothing wrong. She could move it OK and no matter how the doctor twisted it, Audrey didn't seem uncomfortable. She brought in another doctor to look at the bumps and they concluded that it's a virus like chicken pox. They said she would only really be contagious of people came in direct contact with the bumps, so she needs to wear long sleeves. In June. None of the three doctors seemed to be very sure of their diagnoses, and we go back on Friday for a follow-up, right before we're supposed to head for Minnesota for the weekend. It's frustrating to see her in pain and not know what's causing it. She is such a trooper, though. I'm very curious to see how this ends.

In other news, two funny things from Lydia:

I told her that this morning I found Charlie licking my deodorant. Lydia said that was gross and I agreed. Then she said, "Now you have to put it back in your armpit! Disgusting!" Apparently, she is more worried about my delicate armpits.

Tonight Lydia told me, "I think you were cuckoo when you were a little girl." I confessed to her that I think I'm still a little cuckoo. She looked at me very concerned and said, "Should I tell somebody?"

Baseballs to the face and dunking babies. No really, it was fun.

Today was Lydia's second baseball practice. She got hit in the face with a ball and didn't cry, and that moment has gone on Jayson's list of Top Ten Proud Daddy Moments.

Audrey had swim lessons so I swam with Lydia and Charlie. Charlie's new favorite thing to do is go under water while I put my hands on her waist and glide her around. She asked me to do it over and over again. Just to make sure the other moms and lifeguard didn't think I was abusing my child by constantly dunking her, I made her say, "One, two, three, GO!" and then she would push her face in the water before I would glide her. She loved it. I loved watching her underwater with her big round eyes and huge toothy smile.