An Easter Reminder

My friend, Marcie gave us "the Twelve Days of Easter". Each day, the girls open an egg to find a scripture from the New Testament and an object (a tiny cross made out of toothpicks, 3 dimes to represent the money Judas accepted, a rock to represent the stone covering the tomb etc.). The other night, we opened this egg. Inside was a portion of a thorny rose bush to remind us of the crown of thorns plaited for the Savior's head. We read the accompanying scripture and talked about how Jesus was mocked and treated with such cruelty.

Next thing I know, Greer had run into the other room and was sobbing. My little tender hearted sweetie was so distraught over the thought of Jesus suffering and people being "so mean". What child-like faith and insight. A window was opened, so we talked about why He suffered for us and how we can someday live together in His presence because of that supreme sacrifice. It was a pretty simplistic explanation on my part to the little girls. However, I walked away with such gratitude for Greer's soft heart and for a moment in life when my child became my teacher.

Ramping Up for Easter

Goopy eye update: two mornings with no gunk. It sure seems like the eye probes are working. Hallelujah! Kean also got the last of his five Synagis shots today. Those are the $3000 a pop shots that keep him from getting the dreaded RSV. And there's nothing better than soaking hard boiled eggs in dye.

My girls like eating them as much as they like coloring them.

Leave it to Reese to get more dye on her hands than on the egg!

A Little Tomfoolery

Happy April Fool's Day (yesterday)!
My kids are finally old enough to pull some pranks on-- so Byron and I had a little fun last night.
Holland's 3rd grade teacher and my good friend, Joannah stopped by late in the afternoon. She dropped off a bag of books she had borrowed and some other items-- so we told the girls (Holland and Greer) that she had brought over a mountain load of homework they had to finish up during Spring Break.
You should have seen their faces!
We had them eat dinner and take their baths before hitting the books...
I told them if we did one hour's worth on Thursday night, we'd only have to spend 3 hours on Friday doing homework and then they'd be free.
I have to say they were much better sports than I would've been.
They wanted to shorten their baths to get going on the studying.
We gave them a big bag of books and notebooks with a sign that said "April Fool's".
Funny thing was, it took a little help from us for them to figure out that it was a joke.
Teee heee.

A Big Day for a Little Guy

My email has been hit by a virus-- so I'm dealing with computer problems. But I did want to give ya'll a little update.
I spent 3-- count 'em -- 3 hours yesterday at the Pediatric Opthamalogist's office with Kean. In fact, I watched most of Monsters Inc. and half of Ratatouille on the TV monitor in the waiting room-- if that gives you any idea of the waaaaaiiiiittttttiiiinnnnnggggg.
Dr. Lee dilated his eyes, ran several tests and basically just wants to keep an "eye" on the Nystagmus (the jittery eyeball condition). She thinks its just related to his Down Syndrome and nothing else is causing it. Dr. Lee said it should lessen with age and most children with the condition will learn to compensate. For example, Nystagmus is usually worse when looking in certain directions. So kids with it will tilt their heads or look sideways etc. so as not to have the shaky eyes to try to focus with. We don't go back for another 6 months.
But..... while we were there, she took a look at his clogged tear ducts (and since he's fighting some congestion, his eyes looked pretty darn goopy yesterday). Typically, most clogged tear ducts have cleared up by this age, so she gave me three options: keep waiting (which means daily warm washcloth eye baths to "un glue" his lashes and continue with the eye medicine), surgery in a few months to put a stint in his ducts (all I could think of is how hard it is to get an IV in the poor little guy), or try a procedure in the office where she numbs his eyes, straps him down a' la papoose style and sticks a wire down each duct then flushes them out with saline.
I opted for the in office probe-- and we did it yesterday. I had to leave the room when they put him in the papoose (my choice-- I'm a wimp). I could hear him screaming clear down the hall. But thankfully, it only lasted about 7 minutes.
And drum roll please.........
He woke up this morning (I think the first morning ever)... without his eyes full of goop. Keep your fingers crossed everyone that this easy fix will be just that!

Spring Break Day 1

We survived the first full day of Spring Break. We all went to the fabric store with my mom and each of the girls picked out fabric to make an Easter skirt. My mother is a phenomenal seamstress and has been convinced/pestered/cajoled into teaching them how to sew. I have to take Kean to the doctor's on Wednesday for some eye tests-- so my mom will be running her little sweat shop that day. I can't wait to see how the skirts turn out. She did the same with my nieces in Texas a few weeks ago. Pictures will be a comin'.
Tonight at dinner, we were using the old :"Never Eat Soggy Waffles" to help the girls figure out North, East, South and West. Reese followed up the lesson by asking us which way is Easter. Hmmm.
She also wanted us to explain what Love means.
And we're not talkin' tennis.

The Gig Is Up!

Life just got a little less magical. After intense questioning, we caved and told Holland tonight the truth about Santa Claus... which then in turn led to the truth about Leprechauns, Fairies, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, reindeer and magic in general.
How sad.
She sobbed.
I held her tight.
And I clearly remembered how I felt when I found out.
Getting old just flat out sucks sometimes.

Sweets for the Sweet

Reese had a play date today with her little friend, Taylor. Taylor broke her femur jumping on her trampoline so the girls wanted to make her a "get well candy letter". Reese was overly excited to give her the card-- she had some ulterior motives going. I think for her it wasn't so much giving as a chance to get some C.A.N.D.Y.