Busted

The doorbell rang today, just like it does every other weekday at 3 p.m. However, the little girl that met me on the porch after walking home from the bus stop looked decidedly different than usual.



In her own words: "I tried to find the face-painter at field day today, but I couldn't. So on the bus ride home I used a marker and did my own face. I'm sorry, Mama. I'm sorrier than I've ever been."

Ana's spill

Friday afternoon when I found out that Bekah had to be wearing a very specific pair of tights for her dance recital the next day (and the store that sells the tights would close for the weekend in one hour), I carted the girls off to All American Dance to purchase said tights.

Everything was swell and dandy until Ana tripped on the sidewalk. We've gotta work on that kid's reflexes, because her face hit the sidewalk before she could catch herself with her hands.

I could tell that it hurt. But as she started to pull herself up from the sidewalk, we found out that we had a bigger problem on our hands than pain.

Blood poured from her nose and spattered on the sidewalk. I ran to the van, threw Miri in and rushed back to aid Ana.

She was terrified of the blood. I did the best I could with the box of tissues and the case of wipes we had on hand. It only took a couple of minutes to stop the bleed, but it was the longest two minutes of my life because Ana was in hysterics the entire time. I don't even want to guess what the lady sitting on the nearby bus bench was thinking.

When all was said and done, we had six blood-soaked tissues, three blood-soaked wipes, two blood-spattered shoes, and a pair of blood-spattered khakis. Oh, and a swollen lip and series of facial wounds.

Analee the day after her trip on the sidewalk. When Bekah told Ana she had "smoochy lips," it made the situation a whole lot happier.

Tiny dancer

Bekah has toiled long and hard this year at the dance studio. This is her first year taking lessons, and although she wasn't sure how much she'd enjoy it at first, she's definitely grown to love it. (Disclaimer: She was DYING to take classes; I didn't push her into it. She was hesitant only after I had signed her up and she realized that she didn't know anyone in her class. She's a very social creature. But after making some friends, she decided it was worth it.)

This last Saturday, we got to experience our first rehearsal/recital. Exciting times.

(Ironically, I got better pictures at the rehearsal than at the recital. So enjoy the little girls in their curlers.)

Bekah sitting with her class waiting for their turn on the stage at the dress rehearsal. I told her we'd do her hair all fancy later that day, but she insisted on at least wearing makeup for the rehearsal.

Being a scary tiger.

Skipping to her place.

Supposedly doing a toe-touch.

Skipping with her partner.

Her final pose with a couple of the other girls.

All ready for the recital. She had to show off her tail.

This is what happened when I asked her to show me how excited she was.

After the two-flippin'-hour-long recital, Bekah was rewarded with a bouquet of flowers from her daddy (who had sat in the Civic for six hours to save our seats). Seth was rewarded with a tired backside. I was rewarded with two extremely tired little girls, one of which had to be removed from the auditorium to carry out the rest of her tizzy fit. Despite the hardships, we were very proud of our tiny dancer.

Zoo

After we finished all the housework and yard work Saturday, we figured we deserved a little break, so we packed up the wee ones and went to the zoo.

This trip's highlights:

• Miriam is old enough to really enjoy the animals now. However, the zoo is either infested with snakes or Miriam doesn't understand that only snakes hiss. She pointed at nearly every moving thing and enthusiastically said, "Sssssss!"
• Although several of the animals weren't on display yet because of the cooler weather, the number of baby animals on display almost made up for it. We got to see a baby ring-tailed lemur, a baby camel, two baby servals and a baby snow leopard.
• Bekah wants to enter the zoo's annual photo contest, so she brought her camera and snapped photos all along the way.

Bekah taking Ana's picture on the lion statue while Seth watches.

Bekah's picture of Ana.

All right, all right. Miri DID hiss at most of the animals, but when Seth told her this was a monkey (which is hard to see because of Miri's reflection), she actually made the appropriate sound.

The serval kittens.

Bekah's picture of the zookeeper bottle-feeding the baby camel.

Bekah, Ana, Miri and Andrea atop the tiger statue. We were roaring like a tiger. Ana must have missed the memo.

To see more pictures, click here.

Lucky

I'm a lucky momma. Lucky 'cause I have these:

Analee (trying to a princess pose), Andrea, Miriam (mesmerized by the flash) and Rebekah before church today. The girls are wearing the Easter dresses I made. I would have included Seth in the picture, but he was at pre-church meetings. And I tried to take a picture of him later in the day, but he politely declined to be photographed. The poor man is suffering from some nasty allergies and an equally nasty sunburn.

Lucky 'cause my husband gave me this:

A beautiful orchid. Let's hope it fares better than the orchid he got me several years ago ...

Lucky 'cause I received no fewer than four cards for Mothers' Day.

Yup. Like I said, one lucky momma.

Stairs

Once upon a time, we had a baby. Her name was (is) Analee.

Ana at 3 1/2 months.

Now this wily kid knew that, being the second child, she needed to do something dramatic in order for her parents to remember her. So one morning while I was supervising Rebekah's bath and reorganizing the bathroom drawer with all the hair accessories, Analee rolled over. Although it was a brand new skill she had just acquired, Ana knew that wasn't enough to get her mother's attention. So she rolled over again. And again. Under normal circumstances, this would be exciting at most, but Ana wanted to be more than exciting ... she wanted to be daring. So she rolled until she was perched at the top of the stairs. With one arm dangling over the top stair.

Yes, I realize my carpet is incredibly green.

Needless to say, she got my attention.

Seth and I figured that would be our closest call when it came to children tumbling down the stairs. But Miriam has proved to be equally wily. She knew that, as the third child, she'd have to step it up even more.

Yesterday as I read stories from the Friend to the big girls on the living room couch, Miriam was busy looking things over at the top of the stairs. Yes, those stairs. But Miriam has mastered going up AND down the stairs. She's a pro. We've even taken down the gates because she's such a confident stair ascender and descender.

So it's a good thing I happened to glance up from the magazine in time to see Miri's attempt to one-up (or many-down, as the case may be) her older sister. She had leaned over to retrieve her beloved blankie without realizing how close she was to the top of the stairs. By the time I had thrown Ana off my lap and dashed up the stairs, Miri was using every once of strength in her puny baby-arms to keep herself upright. She had both hands one step down while the rest of her body was still on the landing. She was on the brink of tumbling down headfirst.

Gratefully, I prevented her from the possible concussion that would have followed. And so Miriam wins the title of Most Dramatic Near-Fall.

Miriam plotting another way to gain attention. Actually, she's doing her popcorn hands because I was singing "Popcorn Popping" to try and make her smile for the camera.

Analee dances again

Following a ballroom dance fund raiser/dinner show at the high school, Ana took to the floor to show off some of her own moves. If it looks low-quality, that's because it is. All I had to shoot with was the cell phone.