I always try to get a cute shot of my blueberry for her annual CHD Awareness Day Photo proudly displaying her battle scars.
Sounds easy, and it would be if
my little blueberry would only pause
even for a moment.
But then again,
this only reminds me of how blessed we are
to have such a spunky fighter.
Oh, how we adore that spirit and that scar!
Church is always a joyous event for us. An Episcopal service with weekly communion can get pretty long for children, but I really don’t worry about the girls. Our church family knows my girls and Mel, for that matter, and understands us. (Or so I hope.) Sometimes, we get the giggles, usually, because of Mary Clare. Today, however, McCanless and I didn’t have Mary Clare to blame. It was early in the service and she was still in the nursery. McCanless decided to stay with me instead of going to children’s chapel; so it was just the two of us there in our usual pew, right in front, right under Father Michael. We were reading the program and I was having her follow along with the words as I pointed to each one. We sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might…” McCanless began to belt out giggles. Loud, contagious giggles. She couldn’t help herself. It truly was one of those non-stop, involuntary laughs. As I whispered and questioned her, she said, “I know it isn’t right, but we just said that Jesus has holes.”
I just couldn’t help myself as I, too, began to laugh and I just so happened to notice a few choir members laughing along with us.
Friday afternoon, I met my sister in Camden for the swap. The girls went with Kacy and William to the circus and spent the night in Columbia, so Mel and I were able to have date night again this weekend! We went to the usual, Bow Thai, on Friday evening and enjoyed going to the Market downtown Saturday morning kid-free.
As Mel was stopped by every other person to chat business, city or politics, I left him so I could enjoy the soup cook-off. I also bought my usual stock of cheeses from Ovis Hill Farms. Mel headed to work and I headed to get the girls.
After lunch, I took McCanless and Mary Clare to a Coker basketball game, where Dizzy Petites made their Hartsville Hip Hop debut at half-time of the girls game.
The girl loves to perform.
This girl loves to change clothes. (…and costumes, and bathing suits, and her sister’s clothes, and pajamas and panties at least 10 times a day. At least.)
Later that afternoon, the girls wanted a snack, so we stuffed a few noodles through hot dogs…
See?
Well,
we stuffed them before we cooked them. Obviously. A neat little trick I read about in a Family Fun magazine.
Mary Clare decided it was her turn to have a performance with a live audience. She placed us, along with a few of her dolls, on the floor of my bedroom to watch her dance.
Her new signature move.
After another quick costume change…
…to match her princess doll, she was ready to move on and play mommy.
…and McCanless cried again when she remembered how much longer she has until she can change her earrings. Which reminds me about her Groundhog Day experience…
She surprisingly jumped out of bed on Groundhog Day eager to watch the news, somthing she has never done. When she realized that none of the news channels would let her know the status of the official groundhog, so early I asked her why she was so concerned. She simply had to know if he would see his shadow, even before dawn. I told her Ms. Susie would let her know as soon as possible. As we drove to school, I had to explain that even if he left his home and Spring would supposedly come sooner, it could still be a while. It was all in fun, I explained. She immediately burst into sobs and screams. “I thought Spring would be today! Then I could change my earrings. I hate that Groundhog.” Apparently, I told her that she would be able to change her earrings when the weather began to warm up. And apparently if the Groundhog brought us a sooner Spring, it would begin that day, or so she thought.
Saturday night, Mel came running into the door from work at 7pm to jump in the shower for the Women’s League of Hartsville’s annual auction, in which he was the host and auctioneer. (It started at 7) I don’t worry about it any more. I just put on my cocktail dress and wait. I’ve learned. This year was his 6th. Nonnie came over to keep the girls and brought these fabulous pink and purple M&M’s with the girls’ faces on them! What a Valentine’s treat! We watched Cheetah Girls and ate popcorn and M&M’s with Nonnie until Daddy was ready to run back out of the door. We had a fun night and Mel, as usual, was great.
just like those we enjoyed merely two days ago.
Today, during the “severe” weather watch that only the South shuts down for, we are watching the rain fall, wind blow and ice form on the tips of the branches of Cypress trees. No ice on the roads just yet, but we have hunkered down for the weekend. Mel and I ventured out to dinner at Bow Thai and then to Wal-Mart last night to prepare for the severe weather while our girls enjoyed movie night at First Baptist Church. We stocked up on Moon Sand, movies and munchies. (Along with the rest of Hartsville, who inevitably stocks up on bread and milk at even the remote possibility of ice.)
Daddy left for work early, so today, so far, the girls’ team has enjoyed a late and large breakfast, created a Moon Sand castle, roller skated around the house at least 300 times, made chocolate frozen banana pops, ate popcorn for lunch, have had two dance parties and have watched at least a dozen iCarly episodes. (Is iCarly always on Nick?) It isn’t often that we are home for more than a two hour stretch, so I’ve still got some planning to do, as it is only 2pm. Maybe a nap is in store for us.
Hopefully after our severe weather weekend, we’ll enjoy more 60-70ish weather once again! Until then…
Saturday afternoon, as Mary Clare, McCanless and I were hand-in-hand skipping out of Magnolia Mall, it hit me. I realized that I had just experienced a major rite of passage with my oldest daughter. McCanless did it. She got her ears pierced. I was in tears as I looked down at my big six- year- old smiling like a Cheshire cat. I had no idea I would be so emotional. I didn’t feel quite so weird when we later called my sister and she also cried upon hearing the news…
It was a beautiful sunny day and the girls team decided to put those Christmas gift cards to good use and go shopping. A few shops later, we were in line at Target and McCanless looked at me with a sly grin. “Mom, I want to go get my ears pierced.”
I nearly fainted. She has wanted real earrings for a while now, even going so far as to wear magnetic and stick-on earrings daily, but wouldn’t dare put herself through the pain of the real deal. I told her after her sixth birthday she could do it. But still, she refused and said she would never, ever, ever really have her ears pierced, so it came as a huge surprise that she seemed ready.
We immediately took off for Claire’s boutique in the mall. I didn’t have my camera, Mary Clare was in dire need of a nap and we only had 20 minutes until I had to be home for a party with Daddy. I knew we would have lots of consideration and contemplation to do. This is McCanless we’re talking about. Lots to do in little time. I was skeptical. We walked in as another little girl was in the piercing chair. Great. As soon as the little girl began to scream I knew we would be leaving soon. No ears pierced. I told McCanless we could go home. No big deal. (Actually, after seeing the little girl scream, I didn’t really want McCanless to have it done. My heart ached as I knew she would soon feel the same pain. ) I encouraged her to wait a while. Maybe even bring Daddy with us next time. Later. Maybe in a month. Or two. This summer, even.
I think it was the allure of the shiny, sparkly earrings all around her, but she was more determined than ever. She chose “diamonds” and it was over in a matter of minutes. My baby girl cried for a moment and a diamond-studded big girl emerged from the hot pink vinyl chair eager to see herself in the mirror.
Immediately, Mary Clare threw herself in a rage onto the floor screaming to have her ears pierced, too.
McCanless perused the big hoop section and chose a multi pack of pink, purple and turquoise hoops. I had to. I couldn’t tell her that after going through all of that, that mom and dad had a few rules about types of earrings. We’ll get to that later.
So my big girl has her ears pierced. I have no photos of the monumental event, but I will never, ever forget the smile on her face, bursting with excitement, as she looked in the mirror for the first time to see her beautiful “diamond” earrings.
Last night, as we were going through our usual bedtime routine, Mary Clare decided to spice things up a bit. McCanless was already in her bed asleep at 8 pm. (She has strep throat, by the way, which is the only reason she would be in the bed asleep at such an hour.) I plopped Mary Clare up onto the counter as I do every night. She had her juice in one hand and her paci in the other. I turned my back to grab her syringe for her Blood Pressure medication, which happened to be sitting beside her. We have done this twice a day for her entire life. She takes 2 ml’s of her Enalapril. Once in the morning and once at night. In the split second that I was grabbing the syringe, I heard her sucking on her sippy cup, or so I thought. I turned around and she had the bottle of Enalapril turned up.
Funny, I didn’t panic. I’m not sure if it is just my personality or that I’m so used to unexpected events in my household after having three high maintenance people living with me. It also helped that I remembered one of my heart mom friends, Maddie’s mom, from Washington State, telling me about her daughter who had an over-dosage of her BP med for a couple of weeks. (Pharmacy’s fault, but she was fine, thank goodness.) So that gave me some comfort, I’m sure.
Nonetheless, I grabbed the phone to call Mel, who was at a city function. I couldn’t get him so I called MUSC….and long story short, we ended up going to our local hospital to be monitored for four hours. (Well, I wasn’t monitored. Mary Clare was monitored.) All was fine. Her BP did drop pretty low, but not low enough for intervention. The nurses were more concerned about her “low” oxygen levels because they were in the upper 70’s. I had to explain numerous times that her O2 wasn’t our concern. This was about her BP. Upper 70’s are fine for her, especially when she was sleeping! Such is life with a heart kiddo.
So today, we’re home. Vegging right now. McCanless is ill because I won’t allow her to skate through the house (sick, remember?) and I took Mary Clare to school for a couple of hours to get out of the house. She certainly hasn’t been acting like her BP is running low. Quite the contrary. She was running circles around McCanless this morning and begged me to take her to the park at 8 AM despite our late night rendezvous. So, pre-school it was!
Life is back to normal. McCanless is fussing. Mary Clare is happily blue. Mel is filming some local television interview and I’m tired and thankful. And happy.
Lesson learned.
My sweetheart in her princess pj’s fast asleep at the hospital. Even the constant BP cuff squeezes and the beeping of the pulse oximeter going berserk over her “low” levels didn’t arouse sleeping beauty.
From the moment she met her baby sister,
McCanless has amazed me with her constant understanding
and love for Mary Clare.
She has been a loving,
fun,
patient,
and trusting big sister.
Mary Clare thinks McCanless hung the moon,
and simply adores her.
I am so thankful they have each other,
and that I have them.
Glow bracelets, disco ball necklaces, a little duck shooting, and lots of roller derby pals made for an awesome 6th birthday party for McCanless!
I may have to pass the torch. My little rising party planner told me exactly what she wanted and even designed her cake. I took her to CJ’s and she told the cake designer every detail, down to the disco ball on top!
It was a family affair. Mel made a Roller Derby Mix CD for everyone as party favors. (Some didn’t burn correctly for CD players, like mine, so if you need another, please call me! It is a great mix.)
Roller Derby Princess
Mommy, McCanless and Daddy
Michael, Reese and Michael
Kaitlin, Zara and McCanless
Ashleigh and Connor
Bapa and Mimi
Lots-a skate mammas!
…and Daddys
..and one skate baby!
William and Mary Clare
Aunt Liz and Rosie
Baby brother, Alston…Derby King
Happy Birthday, my sweet six year old.
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