Marie's Problem

Marie has a problem. She just loves to color too much. She can't help it. Maybe she's a coloring addict? I think she knows she shouldn't color anywhere except paper but once she feels the crayon/pencil/marker in her hands she just goes crazy! She will color on paper if you give it to her, but maybe there's no paper around. Or maybe the paper is all colored out. Or maybe she needs a bigger canvas for her artistic expression.

This is one of her masterpieces this weekend. She found the markers in a drawer in Greta's jewelry box which she reached by climbing up onto the table. What you can't see is how she also colored all over the jewelry box and all over some papers of the girls that were sitting there. Luckily everything was cleaned up with a little hairspray. Even the girls' papers had been laminated and were safe. See all the circles? She is in her circle period right now. Maybe we should just be proud of her amazing circle coloring abilities and quit trying to block her artistic expression.

Bed Head

This is how Marie's hair looked when she woke up from her nap today. Her hair gets so curly when it is wet and messy!


I keep wondering if her hair will stay like this and only curl when it is wet or if it will get the Setters' kink when she gets older!

Marie's Tubes

Marie's ear tube surgery went very well. We were in the hospital for about 3hrs for her 10min procedure and she was an angel. She was happy to color, read, or watch some videos in the waiting room. Once we were in the back area she amused herself by putting her red hat on with her gown and her own shoes on her baby doll and she played with her hat and baby. She was sweet and patient with all the doctors and nurses and didn't cry at all. I got to take her back to the OR and stayed with her until she was asleep and she didn't even fuss about the mask on her face. She fell asleep holding her baby and with her hat on her head. I wish I had brought my camera because she was so cute. I only remembered to take a couple pictures with my cell phone camera and I can't take the pictures off of there.

I could hear her screaming in the hall as they brought her to me after she woke up but she settled down pretty easily after that. The only thing she wanted was to get that hospital bracelet off her ankle and as soon as I took that off she settled down and started to drink her water. She wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything before the surgery and wasn't allowed to leave until she started drinking. She was still groggy for about an hour but soon perked up and was a mostly happy girl the rest of the day.

Her ears are pretty icky right now and the Dr said she was surprised by how much infection was in there. We are curious to see if we will notice any kind of personality or behavior change now that her ears must be feeling better than they have for almost 6months!

Here are some pictures of her this morning about an hour after we got home! As you can tell, she was already back to her normal sassy self. Notice the blood on her shoulder. She had a lot more bleeding than we expected. I was only expecting a possibility of some bleeding- meaning that maybe there would even be none or just a tiny bit. Her ears bled and oozed all day and were still icky at bedtime!

Strawberry Patch

The girls had a field trip to a local strawberry patch today. There wasn't much to it except getting a bucket and picking the berries! Grace and Greta started out enthusiastically enough but Greta soon learned some berries had mushy spots you don't find until your fingers sink into them and that there are bugs in those plants! She was happier to carry the bucket for us than to pick the berries herself after that. Grace wasn't excited about the mushy berries and bugs either but that didn't stop her from picking the berries. She is a cautious berry picker, however, and liked me to pick out the berries for her to pick off of the plants.




After the berry picking, the girls had some fun with their friends and then we took a class picture.






Marie was not feeling perky. One of the girls' teachers held Marie for me while we picked berries and she never even tried to get down! She did get down and take a look in the bucket just before we left but she didn't get a chance to pick any berries or run around.

Marie's Ears

Marie has been having some problems with her ears and will be having tubes put in this Friday. It should be a short and simple procedure but she will need to be put under so we'd appreciate your prayers for her. Most everyone I've talked to has said that Marie and I will feel so much better after she gets the tubes but I am a little ambivalent. Despite having had an ear infection almost constantly except for about 1 week since at least the first of February, she has had almost no complaints about them. She has not been having fevers, pain as far as we can tell, hearing loss, speech delays, or balance issues. In fact, the only reason we knew she had an ear infection in the first place was because the Dr discovered it during a well check. And based on how Marie's been acting since Feb., it is unlikely I ever would have brought her in to check for an ear infection if it weren't for the well checks. Of course, there's the chance that she really hasn't been feeling her best this whole time and will come out of the surgery feeling even better. Which is sort of scary because I can't imagine her being more talkative, active, and into stuff than she already is! I'm interested to see how or if her behavior changes at all after the surgery. She has her pre-op appointment on Weds and then her surgery sometime early morning on Friday.

Happy Birthday Jon

Happy Birthday Jon! The kids have prepared some messages for you!










And Xander created a special song, "I Want to go to Pluto!" dedicated to his dad.

I'm so hungry I could eat a?

Crayon? So hungry I could eat a crayon? Is that how you would finish the sentence? I guess it is a perfectly natural way to finish it when you are under 2. The other day Marie told me she was hungry and I told her I'd fix her lunch in a minute. She ran off to play with Grace. While I'm fixing the lunches, Grace starts screaming, "Mommy, Mommy, Marie, NOOOO!!" I hurried over to see what the problem was and Grace cried, "Marie's eating all the crayons!!" Marie's mouth was closed, but there were suspicious marks around her face and on her shirt. There were clumps of soggy crayon on the table and floor around her. I asked her what was in her mouth and when she opened it, more soggy crayon pieces fell out. Lesson learned. When this kid says she's hungry? She means it. She really means it.