hunter-gatherer

between lucy's pink eye and my 2 week cold, we haven't been to playgroup in over a month. happily we made it today. especially since it was the easter egg hunt. hazel has really been looking forward to easter and the sugar it provides. we've worked a bit on the real meaning but not enough. i made these resurrection eggs for my primary class and meant to share them for family home evening, but it didn't work out. perhaps tonight......anyway, hazel was super excited to go find the eggs but first she and lucy played on the huge playground:

 lucy tormented me with her fearless ways, climbing up anything and everything:

hazel did some of her own climbing:

and posed prettily for pictures:

finally it was time for the main event. lucy threw a lovely tantrum as we left the playground and crossed a street to another small park where the eggs were hidden. she was fine once she saw that it was another place to play. we let the smaller kids go in before the 3 and 4 year olds. lucy found an egg...:

handed me her bucket and ran off to play:

hazel on the other hand, focused on finding as many eggs as she could:

it was a good thing lucy wasn't interested, hazel found enough for both of them:

i transferred a few into lucy's bucket and let her enjoy her spoils:

and by 'enjoy', i mean consistantly drop and pick them up. then it was back to the bigger park, where lucy continued to shorten my life span:

at this point hazel made an exciting discovery. she ran over to me and said, "mommy! i found somefing for you! come and see! it's a dinosaur bones!" since she had watched her favorite show, dinosaur train, and since elmo's world was also about dinosaurs today, i figured she was playing pretend with some sticks. she wasn't:

how cool is that? she was so excited. she decided it was a t-rex because of it's "weawy sharp teef":

maybe she should be a paleontologist:

with all this talk of dinosuars, of course lucy had to become one:

"roarrrrrrrr!"

the lappy by hazel

self-portrait by hazel

of plains & planes

i recently saw some easter ideas on the blog make and takes that seemed easy and super fun for the kids. one of them was growing grass for the easter bunny to leave a treat. so saturday, we sowed our seeds:

hazel was messy but very meticulous:

lucy was.......well......she was just messy:

after we all filled our jars [and covered the table] with soil, we sprinkled on some grass seeds:

and watered:

the girls had fun and it wasn't too horribly dirty afterwards.

i was remembering the early demise of my "garden" from last year which made me begin to worry that i had already killed the grass and even said so to grant last night. he yawned, said to look at them in the morning and started snoring. this is what i found in the morning:

can you see it?? it is growing! here's a better picture:

each jar has several wee little sprouts. i'm so proud.

since i was oozing craftiness, i decided to put this picture together for hazel:

(yes those are some pretty realistic clouds.) why? because the girls and i are "leavin' on a jet plane". we're heading to utah in april! the only downside is grant not coming with us. he'll still be finishing up this semester. anyway, i've been dying to tell hazel since i knew she would be so excited, not only to see her grandparents, great-grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins but also to fly up in the sky. she came up to me a few months ago, looking kind of dejected, and said, "but mommy, i just don't have wings wike a bird. so i can never fwy up in the sky." apparently i was in a somewhat prophetic mood because i said, "well, maybe one day daddy and i will take you to fly in an airplane." she liked that answer a lot. i wanted to tell her soon but didn't relish the thought of the constant "are we weaving on a pwane today?" so i made her a countdown chain:

and we told her monday night during "family homies". she was happy:

it's playtime

lucy enjoys being the baby:

"i did it!"

what happens when you do a summersault too close to the couch?

this:

dress up time:

my, how she has grown. one of our first blog posts was of hazel in this costume.

who is that lurking in the shadows?

it's suuuuuuuuuuuuu-per woocy! and her sidekick superhero hazel: 

no super hero is too good to play with playdough:

 

here's another example of why i can't leave the girls unattended for a second:

what is that redness around her mouth?  at first i thought it might be a reaction to the amoxicillin but then i saw this:

and nine of these:

hazel then said that she and 'woocy' ate all of the gum. good thing that "7 years to digest"-thing is a myth. stinkers.

aren't her eyes looking so much better? still a little swollen but no more goop! we still have 3 more days of eye drops to go.

one final picture:

she's so vain.

just a {little} rant

it has been a long day. yesterday, lucy woke up from her nap and her eyes were pretty much glued shut. one of her eyes had been a little goopy for a day or so but not really enough to worry about (i figured it had something to do with this incident). anyway, we decided that we needed to call the 24 hour nurse line. i called, listened to 3 language options, pressed 2, then 2 again, listened to some awful music (a cross between mariachi and elevator music), was told "the next available nurse will connect asap" 4 times, talked to a non-nurse receptionist, gave lucy's info, described her simptoms, put on hold again, told "the next available nurse will connect asap" 4 more times, finally talked to a very nice nurse who told me it was probably conjunctivitis. she said to call the doctor in the morning and that they would either get me an immediate appointment or possibly even give me a prescription over the phone(!).

so bright and early this morning i called the office, listened to 3 language options, pressed 3, waited, talked to a receptionist who said i should have called the pharmacy (okay....), hung up, dialed again, listened to 3 language options, pressed 6, got disconnected, repeated, waited, talked to a stern pharmasist who told me i couldn't just call and get a prescription (oh really?), got transferred back to another receptionist who (in a brisk, disgusted and condescending tone) said, "well, you need to bring her in!" and disconnected me (thanks.).

i had hoped to avoid an actual trip to the doctor. this would be the office where we've never waited less than 2 hours to get into a room and another hour (usually much more) to actually see a doctor. i've been meaning to switch to a new pcp since our move back in august but procrastination and i go waaaaaay back. anyway, it was unavoidable. grant had already left for school and i was beginning to panic. i would have tried to drop hazel off somewhere but one of her eyes was showing goopy signs and i didn't think anyone would want to risk their kids catching pink eye. so as i got the three of us dressed, i thought frantic prayers and tried to come up with a plan. i saw the sroller leaning behind the couch and started weighing the pros and cons of taking a double stroller to a perpetually crowded office. the only pro i could think of was being able to strap lucy down. that's a big one, outweighing the many cons. so i lugged the stroller to the car, packed many snacks and treats, toys, and books. i made it to the office (a 30-minute drive) by 9:45, barely snagged a parking spot, walked into the first waiting area and wanted to cry. it was crammed full.

i spent 10 minutes trying to figure out where to sign in. waited another 10 minutes for lucy's name to be called, got the paperwork done and turned in, and after a couple tries, found where i was supposed to wait. 30 minutes later, shocked and amazed, i was taking lucy back to be checked out by a nurse. unfortunately, once she finished, it was back to the waiting room for us. by this point, the girls had finished most of their snacks and become disenchanted with the books and toys. lucy was straining at the straps, trying to wiggle free. i pulled out the big guns: my ipod. they l.o.v.e it. before and after i go to the gym for my run, they usually insist on listening to my music and having a drink from my water bottle. it entertained them for about 10 seconds. sigh. 

suddenly the nurse appeared, needing to weight and measure lucy. she's 24 lbs 7 oz and 34 inches tall. then it was more waiting.....................10 minutes.......................20 minutes, "mommy, i have to pee!"..................................30 minutes...........................40 minutes, judge whoever on tv chastised a woman sueing the mother of her grandson.................................50 minutes..................and finally, we were called back again, this time to see the doctor. lucy has bacterial conjunctivitis in both eyes as well as an ear infection. the ear infection surprised me, she hasn't been pulling her ear or more fussy than usual. anyway, we waited for the doc to write up a prescription and headed for the pharmacy down the corridor. after 10 minutes of trying to figure out how that system works, i got in the first line, recieved my number, waited another 30 minutes for my number to be called, walked up to the window, handed in my papers, and was told to sit and wait for my name to be called.............5 minutes, hazel pushes lucy's face into a bar on the stroller...............10 minutes, lucy slaps hazel's leg.......................15 minutes, "mommy, i'm soooooo hungwy!".....................20 minutes.................it's ready.....kind of, "here are the eye drops and i'm sorry but we're out of amoxicillin (#*@^$!). it's very important that she gets it today, so take your prescription to walgreens or cvs."

1:00 pm and we're in the car driving west on 610. lucy falls asleep. hazel falls asleep. traffic comes to a standstill 1 1/4 miles from my exit. surprisingly, it's not rodeo related. 15 minutes later we exit the freeway. i dropped off the prescription, picked up my first meal of the day and arrived home.

no, the kids have not taken a real nap. yes, i'm in an awful mood. lucy has had her first eye drops administered and once grant gets home, i'll pick up her amoxicillin. i hope she's not allergic to it like grant. that would really complete my day.

thanks for reading. i [almost] feel a little better.