Memorial Day Weekend

With 80 degree weather upon us, it was time to get the pool open.  Jim hooked up the hoses and gauges to the filter.  We added water, took off the winter cover, added a ton of start-up chemicals and voila - pool water with a 69degree temperature.  After 24 hours it was ready to swim in.  Jim had to go in the pool, no choice, because he had to anchor a 50-pound sandbag under the ladder to keep it in place.  I give him credit, he went in relatively quickly without too much screaming, then he actually went back in later to swim with Helaina.  I wouldn't even get my toes wet!  Helaina was delighted because she's part penguin and part polar bear.

Easing herself in ...

... then splashdown, didn't take her long to get back into the swing of things.

Helaina was all too happy to help with cleaning the pool cover.  She thought it was one giant slip and slide.

She liked scrubbing and then hosing the soap off.  At one point when she was on her knees with the bucket and sponge, she started scrubbing and singing "Sing sweet nightingale, sweet sweet nightingale, ahahahahahhhhhhh..."  She was acting out a scene from Cinderella.  Too darn funny.

This weekend we also celebrated Anna's birthday - 2 years old now, with a baby sister due mid-July.  I remember the day she was born and it doesn't seem like it was 2 years ago.  Check out those Shirley Temple ringlets.  We all can't wait to see if  the new baby will have the same curly hair.

Surrounded by piles of gifts, she hukered down and got to ripping paper, only to lose interest after opening about 8 presents, then she took off running toward the playground.

Nic was hesitant to go down this big curvy slide by herself but she was more than happy to slide down with Helaina hanging on to her.  They'd get to the bottom, Helaina would start running to the steps again with Nic following her yelling "Helaina, wait up!"

Helaina totally loves gymnastics.  The regular season finishes at the end of June but we decided to sign her up for 7 weeks of summer classes because she enjoys it so much.  She's made friends with the little girls in her class and looks forward to it every week.  Her newest favorite, aside from doing cartwheels continuously everywhere, is the uneven parallel bars because they are learning how to get on the top bar now and our little daredevil loves it.

Family fun day at school

Thursday was family fun day at school.  There was face painting, a bounce house (oh joy), a home-made water slide, hotdogs, ice cream and more.  Mercifully the rain decided it wouldn't ruin the morning of outdoor fun.

Somersaulting down the slide.  I'm surprised she didn't try to do cartwheels down it.  Since gymnastics, Helaina is obsessed with cartwheels and with all the practice, she's getting darn good at them.

Zoey's favorite place to be lately is in our kitchen bay window.  I happened to catch a kitty yawn in this picture.  She looks wild and crazy-eyed.

There, that's a better look.

Funny Helaina:
Helaina's been interested in geoography lately.  She likes to look at a map of the states and can recognize many of the "easy" ones:  Florida because that's where Disneyworld is, Texas because it's the biggest, New Jersey where Wildwood is, New York of course, and Pennsylvania because that's where Aunt Terry and Uncle Mike live.  I've taken the opportunity to teach her our address and she's got that memorized, with one funny exception.  I'll ask her "Helaina, what country do we live in?"  Her response:  The United Steaks of America!"  United steaks, ha!!!!

It was warm on Sunday

We broke out the sprinkler and beat-up elephant pool Sunday afternoon for some water fun.  The temperature was warm, the hose water was freezing and Helaina was happy.  I think she's a future Polar Bear Club member.  The icy water doesn't phase her in the least - totally opposite of her Daddy who screams like a girl if the water is cold!

And when it's too early in the season for the water parks to be open, you make your own water slide.

Soccer in the mud is always more fun...

With all the rain we've had lately, the soccer fields are a mess.  There have been a few rain-free days here and there but not enough to dry out the fields.  With all the games and practices the grass is worn down, the mud is inches thick and there are literally puddles of standing water on the fields.  Throw in a bunch of crazy 5 year olds and you've one heck of a muddy good time.  It was also picture day and here's a quick snapshot of Helaina posing for her individual picture.  Neat, clean and dry ... for the moment.

Drenched in sweat and coated in mud, Helaina was thrilled to start a quarter by kicking the ball into play.

Helaina got her second wind after sitting out toward the end of the game for a while.  When she re-entered the game she came back with a vengence and ran away with the ball several times. 

Surrounded by the grey team, she hung in there.

She had such a smile on her face when she was kicking the ball - so proud of herself.

Out of the way, boys!

Soaked, sweated, filthy knees, mud-caked socks and sneaks, mud splattered in her hair and on her face - a gross mess but loving every minute of it.  We stripped her in the back of the car before putting her in the carseat.

Helaina ate a good lunch at home, she was so hungry from all that activity.  Since she got up at 6:30 Saturday morning (major groan on our parts), we knew she'd nap - and she did.  She actually wanted to take a nap and slept for 2 hours!  No game this weekend because of the holiday.  Hopefully we'll have a dry spell and the fields will dry out.  If not, the kids had a blast and would love another game of mud soccer any time.

Great ... Teriffic ... Wonderful ... Yippee News

Three years ago this month Helaina looked like this ... in the hospital recovering from extensive palate surgery.

Three years and 4 surgeries later, she's blossomed into an amazing little girl with a personality and sense of humor that keeps us laughing every day.

This morning we had Helaina's yearly team meeting with her surgeon and his entire gang, plus one additional test - another scoping to make sure the surgical correction of her p-flap last August did the trick.  Helaina sat on my lap during the procedure.  She fussed and kicked a bit (my shin has the brusie to prove it) while the doctor used a very long tweezers to insert an even longer piece of gauze soaked in a numbing solution into her nostril as far back as possible (can you blame her for kicking).  When numb, a thin lighted fiber optic camera cable was inserted (more kicking) and snaked to the back of her throat.  Next the speech pathologist has her talk, count, recite the alphabet and make certain sounds to check the flap, bridge and ports.  Test done, tube pulled out and GREAT news.  Complete success.  Everything is working perfectly and no need for any further flap surgery.  Yippee!  Then we got even more good news from our surgeon.  Three years ago he said Helaina would need a bone graft at around 8 years of age because of the way her cleft was.  When he repaired her palate he stitched the gums together where they were parted.  Today he said that it appears the bone inside the stitched gums continued to grow and fused together!  That's wonderful news because the bone graft is an extremely unpleasant surgery where they would have taken bone from Helaina's hip and grafted it into both sides of her upper jaw.  So relieved about that.

And "yippy skippy" to  yet another milestone Helaina reached last week.  After 2 years and 10 months, she has been discharged from speech therapy!  On her yearly evaluation Helaina scored right within the expected range for her age and above in many areas.  We were blessed to have an amazing speech therapist who was not only Helaina's teacher, but someone who turned out to be a friend who truly cared about our little girl.  We are forever grateful to her and it was EXTREMELY difficult for us to say goodbye to her on Helaina's last day of speech.  "Happy tears" as I explained to Helaina why Mommy was crying.

We made up a gift box of goodies to thank Helaina's therapist which included a plant, a picture frame, a gift certificate to Red Lobster and two pounds of yummy Italian cookies from the bakery where we got the cookies for our wedding.  Helaina signed a thank you card and then she made a thank you note of her own and decorated it with stickers.

I'm the first one to admit that I had my doubts at times and thought that Helaina would never get there, but through stubborn determination and a lot of hard work, Helaina has turned into a non-stop talker with clarity to her speech and a vocabulary that amazes Jim and I at times - not too bad considering she hardly said a word for the first 2 months after we brought her home!

To our dearest Helaina, congratulations on reaching your goal, little one.  We are so proud of you in every way and we look forward to the future where we know you'll accomplish whatever you set out to.  We love you like crazycakes.  Love, Mommy and Daddy

She aged me 10 years at lunch today.

Lunch for me today was served up with a mini heart attack and about 20 new gray hairs instantly sprouting.  I made a big pot of chicken noodle soup for dinner last night (Helaina's favorite) and she was having some for lunch today before school.  All of a sudden she drops her spoon, grabs her neck with both hands and with a panic-stricken look on her face, as her face turns beet red, yells "I swallowed big chicken!"  I grabbed her off the bench and had her spit out what food was left in her mouth. As I'm shaking thinking she's choking and can't breathe, I realized that she was answering my questions and obviously breathing.  Her face went back to normal color quickly and I told her that she'd be ok - the chicken was a little stuck and had to slowly slide it's way into her tummy.  I held her on my lap for a while and then she said "It doesn't hurt any more.  It in my tummy." - hopped off my lap, got back on the bench and began shoveling soup in her mouth again.  "Slowly, Helaina, slowly!  Chew, chew, chew and take your time eating.  You've recovered but Mommy still needs a moment." 

Geez, what's lunch without a little Mommy panic.  I still don't know how it happened because the chicken in the soup was in very small pieces.  Helaina tends to eat too fast when she's eating something she particularly enjoys (like noodles).  Sometimes at dinner Jim and I watch her in amazement while she's eating, chowing down like a teenage boy.  We frequently tell her to slow down while eating, she can have what she wants and can take her time.  Joshua always says she's going to be a competitive eater - he may be right.

Helaina went to a birthday party last week for one of her pre-k buddies.  She eagerly anticipated the Scooby Doo pinata, as did all the kids.   They lined up and took turns taking whacks at it.  I made sure to stand back, remembering all the times I've seen clips of pinatas on AFV - someone always end up getting hit with the stick.

Sheer joy and stampeding when Scooby was finally cracked.

Soccer practice last week - the kids all love being goalie.  Helaina stopped this ball from going in the net and she was totally thrilled.



















Funny Helaina:
One morning last week at breakfast Jim was trying to get a clip in Helaina's bangs to keep her hair from falling into her cereal while eating.  He's not good at the hair stuff (his defense is "I'm not a girl, you know.") so the clip kept slipping out.  While he was still trying Helaina says to him "Dad, you need a lesson in putting bows in child's hair."  Laugh out loud statement.

After a bath one night last week I was helping Helaina dry herself off.  When I was drying her legs I noticed she had her hands on her "boobies".  Then she asks me "Mommy, why my boobies so sharp?"  I usually try not to laugh too hard at what she says, but I couldn't help myself that time!
 

Twas a Beauty and the Beast Mother's Day

I knew Beauty and the Beast was going to be wonderful, but I had no idea just how wonderful.  Let's see, how can I describe it:  amazing, beautiful, captivating, magnificant, romantic, funny, sad, sweet, touching, absolutely spectacular.  Oh my gosh what a show.  We all loved it, Helaina enjoyed it thoroughly.  Every time a new character would come on stage she'd shriek with delight.  Belle, Beast, Cogsworth, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, evil Gaston (who had the most magnificant singing voice you could ever imagine).  Just amazing.  Thank you, Daddy, for one of the best Christmas gifts ever.

Mommy and daughter - the only gift I ever need on Mother's Day.

Excited and heading out for the play.

In keeping with the Beauty and the Beast theme, my Mother's Day card from Helaina was musical.  When opened, Lumiere is singing "Be Our Guest"!  Helaina and I have played it about a million times.

Tissue paper flowers stuffed in a painted toilet paper roll are just as good as the real thing!

Nothing says Mother's Day like a Dustbuster.  In Jim's defense, I do need one to vacuum out my car since Helaina is a nightmare in her carseat - crumbs, dirt and glitter everywhere.

The Beauty and the Beast cast taking their final bow.  The singing voices were amazing and the dance numbers were fantastic.  Helaina and I decided this morning that we want to see the play again.  Hmmmm, I'll have to see what city it went to next! 

We headed out to an Italian steakhouse for dinner.  Josh and Helaina stuffing their mouths with bread and garlic butter.

Oh my gravy, can this little girl pack it away.  The child's portion of spaghetti and meatballs was huge.  The meatball was the size of a baseball and Helaina ate 3/4 of it.  The mound of thin capellini in her bowl was enormous, and we knew she was very hungry, but  holly cow, there were only a few strands of pasta left on her plate.  Jim, Josh and myself all brought home doggie bags - but not Helaina!  No sooner did she shovel the last spoonful of pasta in her mouth did she ask "Can we stop for ice cream on the way home?"   NO!!

All good things must come to an end.  Tuckered out at the end of the day, resting in her Belle jammies with her Belle purse by her side.  We told Helaina that she could pick out one gift at the play and it was a toss-up between a Belle tiara and the purse.  The purse obviously won out, thank goodness, because we had never seen the purse in any store but the tiara I can buy at Walmart for about 90% cheaper than at the show!

Highlights of the show for me:  When Lumiere first appeared on stage.  Aside from Belle and Beast, Lumiere (the candelabra) is Helaina's favorite character.  The first time we saw him and he lit up his "hands" "in flames", I thought Helaina was going to fall out of her seat!  Best of all was sitting next to Helaina waiting for two of our favorite scenes.  First would be when Belle and Beast have their romantic dinner together after realizing "there must be something there that wasn't there before."  Belle enters wearing her famous yellow dress (that Helaina was also wearing!), they dine, dance and realize they're falling in love while Mrs. Potts sings the theme song Beauty and the Beast.  Oh, romantic and wonderful, holding Helaina's hand with tears rolling down my cheeks (yah, I know - mushy, but it was a great moment).  Helaina's absolute favorite scene is at the end when Beast is ready to transform.  Beast is at the end of his life (as Beast) while Belle is crouching over him sobbing and telling him "Don't leave me now, I love you."  (yah, you guessed it, more tears).  I lean over to Helaina and say to her "Here it comes!  Your favorite part.  Beast is going to transform into the Prince!"  As the colored lights begin to shoot down to the stage floor for the transformation, Helaina looks up at me and shrieks "I so excited!!!" while kicking her legs and clapping her hands.  Beast's transformation was amazing, don't know how they did it, but Beast rose up into the air and slowly twirled around (just like in the Disney movie), then as if it were magic before our eyes, he was the Prince.  Ahhhhh, what a fairy tale with a happily ever after ending.  Can't say enough about that show, except that I want to see it again!  Here that Jim?  Hint, hint!

Funny funny soccer

Helaina's first soccer game was today and it was a hoot.  I don't know who was more excited - Helaina or us.  She's on the orange team and her uniform hadn't come in yet, so she proudly wore her SU orange t-shirt.  They had a short practice before the game and then the chaos and hilarity began.  The coaches asked "Who wants to be a stopper?  Who wants to be the goalie?"  Eight little hands were eagerly raised every time they asked a question.  Helaina had her turn at being a goalie.  I think she liked that position because she got to wear the special vest.

The coaches are on the field with the kids because they need so much instruction.  Getting a little goalie guidance from the coach.

Practicing kicking.  Helaina did let one ball get by her but so did everyone else.  Probably by the time the season is over they will have finally improved!

Time for a huddle.  The start of the game was the funniest because they were all excited and full of energy.  The whistle blew, the ball was kicked and all 14 kids on both teams surrounded the ball and were kicking at it like crazy.  Too darn funny.

Does she look like a stocky little gal or what?!  The shin guards under her socks make her calves look even more massive!  The hour was a blast.  Helaina got to be a blocker, the goalie, she got to throw the ball into play once from the sideline and she got to start a quarter by doing the kick-off thingie (guess I better learn some soccer terminology).  She was absolutely beat by the end of the 40 minute scrimmage.

And now for tomorrow.  It may be the best Mother's Day yet.  For Christmas, Jim got Helaina and I some very special tickets for a very special show.  Helaina's new Disney princess sandals fit her perfectly ...

... her Belle dress is ready to wear ...

... and we are ready to see the Famous Artist's play Beauty and the Beast!  The show got a great review on everything from the singing, costume design, magnificant sets and the story line staying true to the Disney movie.  I definately am more excited than Helaina is.  I'm excited for her because I know she's going to love it.  Helaina knows the songs and story of Beauty and the Beast by heart, as do Jim and I from watching the Disney movie with her too many times to count.  We're both wondering what Beast will look like.  Squeal!  I'm so excited!