Easter recap

This Easter was fun for everyone. We died eggs the day before Easter and managed to keep her fingers clean this time. I tried to explain to Arielle that the longer you kept the eggs in the dye, the brighter the egg would be but she was too impatient. Although the eggs turned out beautiful anyway because we used the vinegar method this year.

The Easter Bunny's egg hunt was a great adventure and his Easter basket was a success! Even Mommy and Daddy's gift, a new Leapster game, was greatly appreciated. Arielle was so excited to find the hidden eggs and discover that some of them had candy in them. So much so that after she found all of them, she reorganized the jelly beans and chocolate from her basket and made sure that each egg contained a sweet goody! She played with her presents ate a few bits of sugar heaven and kept herself content most of the day. I was even surprised when she ate her ham and green beans then asked for more two hours later! The one thing I am dissapointed with is how bad all of the pictures turned out this year and the fact that the weather was too cold to dress for the occassion so we stayed inside all day.

~Momma to Bug~

Arielle is Four!

It has been a long time since I posted. We have been busy to say the least. I have not been feeling so great in my first trimester of pregnancy and am hoping that will turn around now that I am into the second. Arielle has been keeping herself busy as usual! She recently learned how to play card games; Crazy Eights, Go Fish and Memory. I can't believe how good she is at these games and she loves to play them! Today we played Candy Land and she tried to get away with a couple of cheats but I didn't let her {not even on her birthday}!

So as I mentioned, Arielle turned FOUR today! We had her Barbie birthday party on Saturday and it was a blast! A lot of her friends showed up despite the snow blizzard that was in the forecast. They had so much making necklaces, getting hairstyle makeovers and decorating picture frames with gems. At one point during the party, Arielle managed to bring her friends upstairs to jump on mommy and daddy's bed. She is just a little devious, don't you think?!?! Opening her presents was her favorite part of the party but isn't that obvious? Tonight Arielle gets to open mommy and daddy's birthday presents to her and she is really looking forward to it. I think I have heard her say it at least five times today!


I think the best part about Arielle's birthday this year for all of us is that Gaby got to visit and join in the festivities. We were sad to see her leave today but we had a wonderful four days with her so nobody is complaining. Thanks for the visit, Gaby! We can't wait for the next one.

~Momma to Bug~

Thursdays are Bad Luck

Yesterday was the third Thursday in a row that I have picked my daughter up from school only to find out that she had injured herself. It started two Thursdays ago when this happened to her finger. We went straight to Urgent Care that evening where they told us she had a gentle finger fracture. We followed that up with a visit to a hand specialist who discovered that there were actually two fractures.

Last Thursday when I picked her up I discovered that she had a run-in with another child and badly bruised her cheek. This wasn't a big deal but the bruise is still slightly visible. The story is that she was jumping off a big rock {to see how far she could jump} and that is how it happened. The playground that she was in is covered in small pebbles so the fact that she was jumping off rocks didn't concern me too much.


Yesterday, which was Thursday, as I walked into her school to pick her up I heard someone saying her name in the front office. Sure enough, there she was holding a tissue on her bloody chin. She had been running on the blacktop playground and fell on her knee and her chin. There was a cut about a half inch long that looked pretty deep so off to Urgent Care we went again. Fortunately she didn't need stitches, just a good would cleaning and a few steri-strips and she was good to go. Poor Arielle. She had a couple of little holes in her pants where she fell on her knee and she kept asking if she would be able to wear them again after I washed them.



What is a parent to do? Is the only way to teach her to be careful and not get hurt is by learning the hard way? She is already deathly afraid to open up doors and/or hold them open. Every time she touches one she asks me if it closes automatically. Now I have tried to convince her that she should not run on cement or blacktops anymore but all the other kids are going to be doing it so why shouldn't she? I guess she is just more accident-prone than most other kids, maybe because she is tall for her age.

One thing is for sure, the supersticious being in me is really dreading picking her up from school next Thursday.

Random Acts of Funny-ness

Here are some random acts of funny-ness by Arielle from the past week.



Arielle woke up crying last night at 2:30 am. Of course I immediately thought she was sick and would be burning up with a fever. Happily, she wasn't burning up at all or complaining about any other ailment. In the morning, I asked her if she woke up in the middle of the night because she had a bad dream to which she replied, "I accidentally dreamed about ants." I said, "Ants aren't scary though, are they?" and she said, "They were red ants." Earlier that week we had a discussion about animals that could sting you so that is where she learned about red ants. I thought for sure she was having nightmares about the ghosts and goblins on Scooby Doo, which we let her watch before going to bed. Probably not a good idea but she loves that cartoon!



One day Arielle was playing her harmonica and told me she was making restaurant music. And every time a discussion comes up about the President, she asks me why he can't come to our house to meet us. Last night, she insisted on taking a shower instead of a bath. Seeing how afraid she has always been of showers I was happy to accomodate her request. While she was in the shower she said, "Oh, this is much better today!" She still doesn't like to face the water and has to cover her eyes with a washcloth the entire time but that is still improvment. The best one was when she put her arms under her nightgown and stuck her fists out of her chest then told me she has big boobs!!!


Where does she come up with this stuff?


~Momma to Bug~

Flower Art

Arielle drew her first picture of a flower...followed by lots more flowers!




She was so proud of herself and I can see why. It's so fun to see what a wonderful artist she is becoming. The other day she drew her rendition of a scene from the Three Little Pigs. So cute.

We ended up taking Arielle to a hand specialist the other day and they said we were doing everything right and her finger should be healed within a month's time. Normally it takes 6-8 weeks for broken bones to heal but since she is young it will be less time. They did find that she actually has two fractures on her finger so that probably explains why the bruising was so bad.


It's getting better every day.

Arielle has her first ballet class on Saturday. We can't wait!

~Momma to Bug~

3 Days Later

Arielle's finger has certainly been improving although we still shudder everytime we look at it. We have been icing it regularly and wrapping it in a new and improved splint that a friend {and a hand therapist} made for us. The first picture I posted wasn't even of the bad part so I thought I show you what the bad part looks like three days later. If you have a weak stomach you might not want to see it.

The thing that makes me the most mad about it all is that her school claims somebody called me on my cell and home and left voicemails. Well, they are either lying or they called somebody else's mom because I know I didn't get calls or voicemails. I really don't know what to do because I have been very pleased with her school until now. Arielle really likes it and she has a lot of friends. I don't think changing schools is a good idea but I wasn't afraid to tell them how upset I was about the whole ordeal. All they could was apologize.

I will be scheduling a follow up visit with Arielle's pediatrician today or tomorrow.

~Momma to Bug~

Finger Fracture

Arielle has her first broken bone. Fortunately it is not too serious but it is painful none-the-less and looks absolutely horrible. It happened yesterday morning at her school when she got her finger slammed in a {very big, heavy} door. The thing that breaks my heart the most is that she told me she was holding the door open for her friends. The teacher didn't realize this and let the door close. I am so not happy that the school didn't call me. Nor did they give her any motrin to ease the pain or the swelling. Sounds like they put some ice on it and a bandage then forgot all about it. I guess the fact that she wasn't acting like herself all day and she actually laid still at nap time and slept wasn't a big red flag for them that something was wrong. I don't know whether to be angry or just cry imagining the thought of her asking for her mommy when she was in pain {which she told me she did}.

When I brought her home it took several minutes for me to convince her that I needed to take the Hello Kitty band-aid off to check it out. Well, I was not prepared for what I saw underneath the band-aid. It was big and purple and there was white stuff around it. My maternal instincts kicked in at that point and I carried her off to Urgent Care without hesitation. When we got there they gave us an ice pack which Arielle kept on her finger the whole time without and resistance. This made the swelling and purple decrease quite a bit so I started to feel relieved.

Next, they took x-rays and discovered that the tip of her bone was fractured. So they cleaned the wound and created a splint {that looks more like a cast}. When she came home and I held her so tightly. I am so proud of how well she handled the whole ordeal. It helps that she got to watch the movie, The Little Mermaid while she waited and her bandage is purple {one of her favorite colors}.

One of the things I will never forget about this accident was the fact that she asked me several times if her finger was going to fall apart. I think that is what she is worried about the most. She also told me, "I shouldn't have held the door open. Next time I will tell the teacher that I can't hold the door because I don't want to get my finger pinched."

I am such a sap, I can't imagine anything worse happening to her. This is hard enough. Today Zak is taking her to a hand specialist, hopefully they can get her in at the last minute. We just want to take every precaution that we can to ensure that her finger will heal.

Fortunately, my girl is in good spirits as long as we are not touching or looking at her finger. That's always a good sign that we are doing something right!

~Momma to Bug~

What's Been Going On Lately?

Here is a list of recent events in our lives since I last blogged:

Strep Throat

Two Pink Lines

Caffeine Withdrawl

Home Improvement x 3

Vanishing Terrible Threes

First, Arielle came down with her first case of strep throat this month. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be especially knowing that she might have had an ear infection on top of it. We didn't lose much sleep, if any, and she handled it like a pro. Lucky for us Arielle loves medicine so there were no issues other than a few days of painful swallowing and lack of an appetite. I am happy to report that she has fully recovered.

Second, we found out that we are expecting baby # 2 this October {this actually happened in January but I wanted to wait a few weeks to announce}!

Third, what I thought was a really bad case of morning sickness {lasting all day long} turned out to be symptoms of caffeine withdrawl. Silly me...I stopped drinking coffee cold turkey for a whole week! It wasn't because I am pregnant and worry about the effects that caffeine has on a fetus {because I have done enough research to know that 2 cups a day is harmless}. It was because one morning coffee just didn't taste good to me so I decided I was done with it. Thank goodness a co-worker pointed out to me that I could be experiencing caffeine withdrawl because no more morning sickness!

Fourth, we have done a few home improvement projects this month. One of them I just posted {although I realized that I didn't take any pics of our sink which is far better looking than the toilet}. Aside from the bathroom bead board projects, we also changed Arielle's bedroom up a bit by removing the closet doors, putting her dresser in the closet and placing her bed against the wall. By making these changes we tripled the amount of floor space that she has in her room! I'll post these pics soon too but it too remains totally UN-finished until I decide about hanging curtains or not.

Fifth, I have had the pleasure seeing what life will be like when the terrible three's are no longer a part of it. As Arielle nears her fourth birthday, I have had the pleasure of experiencing the sweeter side of her personality more often than not and let me just say that it. is. wonderful.!

So, that's what has been going on this month! Now I need to start planning Arielle's fourth birthday party. She wants to do a Barbie theme this year.

~Momma to Bug~

Half Bathroom Bead Board Project

We decided to put bead board up in our half bathroom located on the main floor of the house. This was a fairly inexpensive project that took just one weekend to complete. Fortunately Home Depot sells kits trim and bead board kits that fit together like a glove. I am so pleased with the outcome!

We liked it so much that we decided to do the same thing in Arielle's tiny bathroom upstairs {I'll post those pictures once we replace the cracked toilet tank :-(}.

~Momma to Bug~

In Memory of Ava ~ Super Princess ~

This post is in memory of Ava so that she will

Never. Be. Forgotten.

On this day two years ago, the world lost it's original Super Princess, Ava Rosemeyer.

Upon hearing about Ava on her mummy, Sheye's blog, I instantly knew that this little girl was special and that her story was going to bring a lot of good to a lot of people. It warmed my heart to see so many people show compassion for Ava's family and how they have been so supportive of them. That is when I truly realized what the blogging community has to offer and I decided I was truly happy to be a part of it.

Because of Ava, I have also learned to cherish the time that I have with my loved ones. This isn't always easy to do, especially when my three year old is showing her "spirit" as she tends to do so often. But thinking of Ava always reminds me how lucky I am to have another day with my daughter and that thought makes these moments easier to manage.

I hope that more parents will learn Ava's Rule and teach it to their children.

Ava was very fond of anything princess-like, especially pink.
I took this picture last month and I knew I wanted to post it but didn't know when or why. I am dedicating this picture of pink gerber daisies to Ava. If you are interested in posting a blog in Ava's memory and would like to use this picture please email me and I'll gladly send it to you.

~Momma to Bug~