It's All in the Details

When you are searching for the Discover Kids show Peep to watch On Demand, you might want to verify which channel you are accepting or you might get more then you bargained for! I'm just saying...

2009 Version of Cliques

It used to be East side versus West side, nerds versus jocks but now there's a whole new division of cliques going on. That's right, it's vampires verses wizards at Morgan's school. According to Morgan there are several kids that are vampires. REAL vampires. For real. But I shouldn't worry because she's not a vampire. Nope. She's a wizard. For real. And it's a schoolyard fact that vampires are not allowed to play with wizards and that is precisely why she can not be friends with Ashely. Cause she's a vampire. For real.

Sickness

On Thursday Morgan and I got our flu shots. By Friday we were both sick. As of Sunday night, she still had a fever of 101 so Mark stayed home with her today.

She is not your typical sick child. She's always hated sleep. She fights it like nothing else. Being sick does not change this. Instead of sleeping the days away, she's moaning and tossing and turning, trying to stay awake with every last ounce of effort. Her eyes have been bloodshot and unfocused and still she doesn't give in. We've tried explaining that sleep will make her feel better, but she refuses to accept this.

She also has a terrible cough. When she does finally fall asleep at night, she is jarred awake by her coughing. Since OTC cough medicine has been banned for kids her age, we have tried giving her honey. While she would gladly slurp down any "real" medicine and goes so far as to request meds even when she is feeling fine, she will not swallow a teaspoon of honey. She is locked jawed, thrashing her head back and forth and crying that honey is too gross.

Oh, the oddities that are Morgan.

Lessons Learned

Even though we had cut down our dead tree flush to the ground, we still needed to dig up the root ball and remove it before the new tree was delivered and installed. There was an option to pay $65 for the nursery to do this, but we thought we could easily do this on our own. The tree was only four years old, how hard could it be? The answer: pretty dang hard.

Mark thought he could dig up the root ball and remove it with his hands. After digging a hole twice as big as we expected, he still wasn't able to get the ball out. So he hooked up his tow rope and decided to pull it out with the SUV. The tow rope broke. After a trip to Home Depot and dropping $50 on a metal chain, he was able to pull the ball out. There was one little catch. Without thinking, he had driven the SUV into the garage, not across the street. So now, the SUV is stuck in the garage with a giant root ball behind it and no where to go. We couldn't hook the chain up to my car either because part of the metal chain you would use to attach to the hitch also broke in the process. Mark was going to have to work at home the next day and then beg the workers to take away the root ball. Backed by $20 the workers were more then happy to take it away.

So... that's $25 for the old tow rope, $50 for the new chain with will also have to be replace at around $25 plus $20 for the workers. That's a grand total of $120. Plus the hard labor and time lost.

Moral of the story: If you are going to pay almost $500 for a tree and the installation, you might as well throw in the extra $65 to remove the current tree.

On a happier note, we now have a beautiful, more mature tree in front of the street and no homeowners fine.

Random Thoughts

1. Week 5 of Kindergarten and Morgan has finally stopped having melt downs after school. Hopefully typing this does not curse me.
2. Morgan is on a football kick. She LOVES the Broncos (sorry Mom and Dad, I tried) and she's a loud and boisterous fan. A commerical came on about being a fan and she started yelling at the tv "Hey! We are Bronco fans too! You got that?!" During last night's game, she drew a picture of a Bronco cheerleader. Mark is so happy, I think I might have caught him crying tears of joy.
3. This weekend we dropped almost $500 on a tree. For our street. Most likely because the builder did not plant them correctly since over 30% of the trees in our neighborhood are dead. I am bitter.
4. While looking at trees, there was one with a bird's nest in it. Morgan wanted that one. Badly. Because it came with a bird. Much to her disappointment, we did not get that one.
5. On Sunday we had a great time with Joann at our church picnic. Her and Morgan entered the three-legged race. It was the first time Morgan attempted this. She needs practice. But she did have fun.
6. We were supposed to go on our last camping trip of the season this coming up weekend but cancelled. It has turned way too cold for this to be enjoyable. I'm very sad it's time to winterize the camper already. Boo hoo.

We Are Family

Before heading to Worthington, we made one last stop at Pipestone National Monument. Pipestone contains quarries that the Native Americans used to carve out their pipes. The area is still considered sacred by many American Indians. It is not a large park, but is very interesting and contains a beautiful trail by a waterfall. Morgan grabbed a Junior Ranger booklet and completed all the activities. Her favorite thing to do was cut the pipestone. I think she could have done that all day. After she completed the booklet, she received her second Junior Ranger badge. She also got her National Park Passport book stamped and now has a grand total of four stamps.

We arrived in Worthington just in time to surprise Mark L for his birthday party. We had a great time catching up with family.

Morgan and Ava. Ava was born one week after Morgan.

Morgan, Amy and Grayson. Grayson was a newborn at our wedding. Now he's getting so grown up.





Ava, Morgan and Alizah were all born within a month of each other. Alizah's first, then Morgan, then Ava.

This was the first time we got to meet Alizah's little sister Hailey.

Morgan had a bit of a crush on Grayson. Morgan announced to Grayson - I love you... and now I'm going to kiss you. And then planted one on his arm. This was followed by Ava screaming Eeewwww! Morgan just kissed Grayson. When she gets older we'll need to explain what cousins means.

The first generation of cousins: Amy (Grayson's mom), Andy and Amy (Alizah, Hailey and Jaxson's parents), Mark and I, Anni and Pete (Ava's parents) and Aaron and Mandy. Missing from the picture: Randy. Not able to make the party: Aaron and Amy K, Alisha and Mitch, and Matt. Yes, it's a very big family.

Omaha's Wild Kingdom

For Labor Day weekend, we headed up to a family gathering in Minnesota to celebrate Uncle Mark's birthday. We decided to break up the drive on the way there so we left on Thursday after Morgan got out of school and drove to Kearny. Once there, we did the math and figured out we could stop in Omaha and visit the zoo. I know what you are thinking: wow. The Omaha Zoo - that has to be thrilling. Oh! But it is. It's one of my favorite zoos.

We decided to hit the highlights and visit three buildings: The desert dome with the Kingdom of Night below it, the Scott aquarium (which we had never seen before) and the Lied jungle building. One of the best things about this zoo the fact that you are emerged in the environment and that many of the exhibits are cageless. For example these two guys in the dome are roaming around freely. There's no glass, no wires, nothing between you and the wildlife. Or I should say the less dangerous wildlife. Of course the bobcat is safely tucked away from us.




The Kingdoms of the Night shows the nocturnal animals in their natural settings. Highlights include a "bottomless" pit right along side the trail. You can put your hand right into the water. Unfortunately the illusion was broken by some idiot who had thrown a coin in the pit and you could see it "hanging" in mid-air about four inches down where, apparently, the glass floor starts. There is also a bat cave with a 70 foot ceiling. My favorite exhibit is the last one - the swamp with the floating boardwalk. It features a Trapper's Cabin, a beaver lodge, cypress trees and 30 swamp animal species, including opossums, beavers, muskrats (or a river otter or something), in barrier free habitats. This would be Morgan's least favorite due to the alligators that are right under foot. Since all these exhibits are in the dark, it's hard to get any good pictures.

Next, we headed over the Scott's Aquarium. Morgan stopped to show us how excited she was to be at the zoo.

Again, because of the glass, it was hard to get any good pictures at the aquarium. It wasn't a very large aquarium, but we managed to spend quite a bit of time there. We spent a lot of time watching the Antarctic penguin exhibit in the beginning. There were two baby King penguins but boy, they were not little. They were as tall as their parents at about three feet tall. They towered over all the other types of penguins. It was hard to believe they were babies.

We also spent a lot of time sitting in the shark tunnel and watching the sharks and stingrays swim all around us. There was also a blowfish that was checking us out.

New to the zoo this year was the Skyfari - an arial view of the park. The ride takes you in an open air lift over the giraffest, cheetah yard, Garden of the Senses, the lagoon, monkey island, elephants and rhinos. It was really neat to get this different view of the animals. We were so close, we could have jumped on the animals backs.

Our last stop was the Lied Jungle building, the largest indoor rain forest, where one follows a jungle path while observing animals that are free ranging or contained behind water and rock barriers. Below, Mark is thrilled to be demonstrating how to cross one of the rope bridges.



This curious little guy is right on the railing you see above. There is nothing between it and us. If it wanted to, it could jump right on our shoulder. Mark wanted to come back with a banana in his pocket and see what would happen.

Futher down, a sloth was literally hanging directly over our heads.


Lucky for us , it was bat feeding time when we walked through. See those two brown shapes in the top center of the picture? Yep. Bats. About 50 bats swarming back and forth among the food. And no. These are not behind glass either. And yes. They were dive bombing right by our heads. Strangely enough, Morgan, who was freaked out at the bat cave where the bats were safely tucked behind glass, stood here for a long time calming watching the bats fly to and fro. I, on the other hand, wasn't quite as calm. As another panicked visitor pointed out to her boyfriend who was telling her to look at how calm that little girls was: Yes, but she's short so the bats aren't right at her head!

Although we only did three buildings and the Skyfari, we were at the zoo for almost 5 hours. When it was closing time, it was time for us to drive on to Luverne, MN - our stop for the night.

(As a side note, the zoo is opening a new Madagascar exhibit to house rare lemurs and orchids. The zoo has a multiyear wish list that includes an Arctic Center, a new elephant habitat, an Australian exhibit with kangaroos and an Antelope Valley exhibit. All good reasons to keep coming back year after year.)

A New Smile

That night, Mark and I replaced the note with three gold Sacagawea dollar coins along with some "fairy" glitter. When Morgan made this discovery in the morning she was very relieved that the Tooth Fairy expected her note. With deep reverence, she gently scooped up the "fairy" glitter and placed it in a ziplock bag for safe keeping.

Whenever I get a glimpse of her new smile, I can't help but think she looks like a little boxer.

A Lost Tooth (Literally)

It should be a peaceful Saturday morning but instead I hear a door open and the pitter-patter of little feet coming down the hall. With one eye open I see that my clock reads 5:58. Saturday at 5:58 is way too early for any sort of movement but it's clear Morgan doesn't feel the same way. She comes bounding into my room full of excitement.

Mommy! Mommy! Look!

The sun is barely across the horizon so I can hardly make out the small white treasure she holds in her hand.

It came out! It came out!

Trying to find a balance between enthusiasm and hope that more sleep can come I tell her how great that is, but it's really, really early and she should really try and go back to sleep. She has a million questions about the Tooth Fairy including whether or not she can still visit this morning since the sun isn't all the way out yet. I tell her to go back into her room and try and sleep more. She skips down the hall.

Mark is now awake and he takes over. The two of them go downstairs to do some art projects. She is still clutching her precious pearl in her hand. They get absorbed in what they are doing and only later realize that the tooth is no longer with them. We look all over for it, but it can't be found. It either went in the air vent under the table or got thrown away during clean up time. Morgan's only concern is whether the Tooth Fairy will still come.

We write a letter to the Tooth Fairy explaining the situation, apologizing to the fairy and wishing her luck on finding the missing tooth. Morgan signs it and puts it under her pillow for the night.

Wiggle Room

I was helping Morgan finish up brushing her teeth last night, when I noticed that her bottom tooth looked like it was getting crooked. I put my finger on it and without any effort the tooth bent into a 90 degree angle. Since I'm not good at all with blood, guts or weird looking teeth I almost passed out. I was thinking "oh my gosh, she broke her teeth" and "oh no, we need to go to the dentist stat!" After the initial shock of the whole thing, my brain processed what was going on. My little girl was losing her first tooth. And quickly. We haven't noticed a wobbly tooth and now suddenly here it is just barely hanging on. We asked her if she noticed anything. She said at lunch today it felt funny and she was afraid that she was getting a cavity. While I was still trying to calm my stomach, she was jumping up and down excitedly announcing that she has a "lost tooth". The rest of the night she would ask us every couple of minutes if it was still there. She was very concerned about losing it on the ground.

First I had to deal with going to kindergarten and now this. I really didn't expect this to happen this soon. I should have. Most of her friends have already lost a tooth. I don't know how much more growing up stuff I can take in a short time!

Oh and does anyone know what the going rate is on the Tooth Fairy these days? I'm guessing it isn't the quarter we got as kids.

Homework

On Fridays, Morgan brings home her homework folder and notebook. They are to turn the folder and notebook back in the following Friday. I've never seen someone so excited to do their homework. All during the camping trip she practiced her homework (we didn't want to bring the orginal notebook with us in case it got ruined outside). Yesterday, she filled out her notebook. Here was their assignment:

1. Write the letters of your child' s name on a separate piece ofpaper. Cut apart the letters and have your child glue their name backtogether in their homework notebook.

2. Have your child practice writing their name in their notebook 5 times.

3. Have your child draw 5 groups of 3 (three butterflies, three flowers, three cars, etc) in their homework notebook, and then practice writing the number three under each group.

4. Read a book to your child and have your child draw a picture of their favorite part in their homework notebook.

In addition to the homework sent out on Friday, students are expected to read 10 minutes daily with a experienced reader.

I can only hope she continues to love homework and the novelty of it does not wear out.

Rocky Mountain National Park

This weekend we went camping at Rocky Mountain National Park with two other families. Like usual, our campsite had several visitors.



On Saturday we hiked up to Alberta Falls with Tim, April, Keaghan, Aspen, Kaitlynn, and Gavin. Joann and Eddie didn't have the baby carrier for Logan, so they did their own thing.

On the hike, I was up ahead with the five kids. A lady asked me if the kids were all mine and when I said no she went "Whew!" That's good". I almost wanted to say: No, I meant these aren't all mine because it doesn't include the three more back at the campgrounds. People!

We made it to the top and kids spent lots of time exploring and climbing all over the rocks.





Afterwards, we hung out at the campsite.




What do you get when you put Joann in the camper with six kids? A crazy tumbling mess!


The next day we hiked around Bear Lake with Joann, Eddie and Logan. We took the time to dip our toes in the water.


And Morgan discovered that pushing a real baby around in a stroller was harder then pushing around a doll.

Morgan got her first Junior Ranger badge on this trip. She had a great time filling out the questions, animal facts and scavenger hunt items in her activity booklet. She also got another stamp in our National Park Passport book for a new total of three. Not bad for getting the book in July.

The Princess and the Pea

There once was a little princess who's skin was so sensitive, that she could feel a pea under 100 mattresses. With in seconds of putting on her royal robes, this little princess could also feel a shirt sleeve, the end of her shorts, a front button on her pants, a decorative button on a shirt, and a swim suit strap. These items would cause such distress to her delicate skin that she would writhe on the floor in severe agony, screaming uncontrollable at the top of her lungs.

And the king and the queen could only shake their heads in worry and dismay wondering how, besides letting the little princess roam around the kingdom naked, they could fix this terrible affliction.

Monday Report

Mark brought Morgan into school on Monday (we have been rotating schedules so that both of us can enjoy the different aspects of pick up and drop off). According to him Morgan had her shoes and backpack on 10 minutes before it was time to leave. She was very anxious and wanted to get to school on time. As they were walking, she saw the bus and wanted to hurry and get there before the bus did.

Outside line up went smoothly for Mark and Morgan, but did not go well for others. There were four or five kids crying and clinging - four or five that were not clinging on the first day. So those of you starting school, be warned: the kids might do great on the first day, but after the first weekend they hit a restart button.

I picked Morgan up after school and unfortunetely Mr. Mouse is still there. At least he was going something productive. He was sitting outside with a large group of kids reading a story to them. He did not say boo to me when I got Morgan.

Morgan's made a new friend. She's an 8th grader! At least we think she's an 8th grader. Morgan said that she's 15 years old. Morgan calls her Sissy. Morgan's also informed us she would now like a little sister but that's a whole other story. Anyways, Sissy plays with Morgan during the After Care program. She pushes her on the swings. She seems like a very nice young lady. Hmmm... maybe a future babysitter?

Today in school they had a tornado drill. Morgan was in the music room when this happened. She had to grab a book, put it over her head and get down on the floor. Again, she found this fun. That girl has a weird sense of fun.

Her highlight for the day: playing with Sissy and listening to the music instructor teach the class her name by singing it. Her lowlight for the day: losing her bracelet. After some questioning, we discovered that she didn't actually lose the bracelet but Ms D took it away because she was playing with it and it's safely located in her cubbie.