Cora and Olivia

Digging Holes

Andrew has been digging a hole in the garden, and not just a little hole to plant something in. He's been digging a GIANT hole for the girls to play in. The girls had a fantastic time playing in the dirt! They dug out little caves in the sides of the big hole to put toys in and play with. They had a ladder to get in and out. Andrew even put a tarp over the top, this kept it warm and dark inside, as it was very blustery outside. They spent a huge amount of time "under ground" this weekend! They were very, very, very dirty too! They sure had a fun time! (Daddy too!) Eventually they got clean again after a long soak in the bathtub.

Family Visit





























We had a fun weekend visiting at Grandma Sandy's and Grandpa Tim's house. Grandpa Lynn and Grandma Tee were visiting from Georgia, they had just been on a cruise to Alaska. Aunt Barbara, Uncle Lance, and cousin Judith came over as well. We usually see Grandma Tee and Grandpa Lynn in Tahoe in December, so it's special to get to see them now. The girls hadn't met cousin Judith yet, so that was a special treat as well! Cora enjoyed playing peek a boo with Judith, and I think Judith liked it too! Of course the girls also had a great time climbing all over Uncle Lance and Grandpa Lynn!

No more cast!

Olivia got her cast off Friday, just in time for the school Harvest Fair! It was a little scary getting the cast off because they use this rotating saw-like thing to cut through it. It vibrates a lot and is very noisy and I thought it was pretty scary too. She cried and wanted to be held throughout the process which seemed to take such a LONG time, and we were all very relieved when it was over. She had another xray taken of her arm, that at least wasn't scary. Then the girls got to go to the Harvest Fair and run around in the rain and have fun. Cora and Olivia both had their faces painted, they played games and made fruit loop necklaces, all the while trying not to get too wet. Of course Olivia has gone right back to playing and doing everything she wasn't supposed to be do while she still had her cast on. Although really, having the cast on didn't really slow her down much!

Hiking Mt. Lassen

Andrew and Cora (and Diego) hiked up Lassen Peak today! (Or, as Olivia would say, Mountain Lassen!) They made it all the way to the top! Andrew will be writing about their experience, and I'll post his words here.

And Yet Another First for Olivia...

Well, I guess it was bound to happen eventually. It was just a matter of time... Olivia broke her first bone yesterday. She was on the playground at school during recess when she fell off the monkey bars and had a bad landing. Apparently she landed on her face and she must have also landed on her left wrist. She went to the office, they called me at the library, and I was there with her right away, one of great things about working at the same school. Her face had been all bloody, but that was just a cut lip and her nose, nothing bad once the blood was wiped away. Of course it was picture day, but she had already had her picture taken so we're not going to have a blood stained picture. She was really shaken up about the whole experience, was crying a lot, and wanted to stay with me. I took her to the library with me and we even set up a little pad for her to lie down on for awhile. The class that was supposed to come into the library at that time, went back to class instead so that she could have some recovery time with me. We read some books and ate lunch together and she seemed to be doing a whole lot better. But as soon as she was reminded that she had been hurt, she would tear up all over again. I was able to spend a good amount of time with her because I don't have any classes that come in during the three school lunch times on Wednesdays. She stayed with me in the library for the rest of the day, declining to go to the After School Program room where she usually spends the latter part of the day when kindergarten is over, before the rest of the kids are done with school. She said her wrist hurt her, but she didn't have any problem moving anything and nothing seemed to be hurting too badly. And yet after school, her wrist was still hurting, so we decided to get it checked out just in case.

Olivia seemed to do just fine with the whole experience once she realized that she wasn't going to have to get any shots. She did very well with the x-rays, sitting on my lap for that. And she was most fascinated with getting to see the x-ray images on the computer. Olivia had never been able to see the bones inside her hand or arm before! She wanted to see the bones more closely and the technician was really great about enlarging the images so that Olivia could study them better. It turned out that she had in fact fractured one of her bones, it is a greenstick fracture which means that her bone didn't break completely through. Things were too busy at the hospital last night to head over there for a cast, so Olivia got a temporary splint and we were given instructions to go to the hospital for a cast today instead.




So Olivia and I left school today, went to the hospital, she got to pick the color purple for her cast, and then we returned to school, just in time for Olivia's class to come to the library for part of their library time. Mrs. Chik signed Olivia's cast, she even drew a little chick, then all of Olivia's classmates signed their names on her cast as well. The students were very sweet, word had gotten around school and lots of kids asked me about Olivia today and how she was doing. Chiksie got to come home with Olivia again today, and this time I remembered to take pictures. So I have pictures of the cast and of Chiksie -- too bad Chiksie didn't get to come to the hospital with us, then she'd have even more exciting things to write about in her journal!

First School Library Book...

Olivia checked out her first book from the school library last week. She's been in the library a lot, of course, but this was the second time her kindergarten class came into the library and the first time they could check out a book. She picked out the book all by herself, choosing "The Story About Ping" by Marjorie Flack, a book she has seen at Grandma Julie's house.















Olivia has really been enjoying school, she loves her teacher, and she's making new friends. It's so much fun for me to see her running around the playground, having fun, and being her sweet self. I spent the day in her class last Friday and we had a really fun day together. That was red day and all the kindergarteners stood up in front of the multi-use room at all-school sing and sang their "red song" -- they were almost all dressed up in red too. Olivia is learning lots of new songs at school and she can often be heard singing songs from school as she plays around the house.